Just A Summer Fling?
by Brinvixen
Summary: Kagome wanted to keep her summer to herself. But when the main part of her break started going to her school, keeping everything inside became harder and harder. Especially when feelings got involved. InuKag.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I dont own Inuyasha or any of its characters **

* * *

**Chapter One**

The usual "first day of school after summer" bustle was underway: friends reuniting with friends to discuss what awesome/horrible summers they had. Boyfriends and girlfriends that had been separated over the vacation were hugging and kissing, quickly rekindling the flame. Even the teachers were caught up in the commotion, talking amongst each other about whatever teachers talked about. However, Kagome Higurashi chose to lag behind, and not jump right into the center of things. If possible, she wanted avoid all contact with people, until the whole "How was your summer?" feeling blew off. Her summer was something she preferred to keep to herself. Especially at this school: once some minutely interesting story got leaked, the entire population picked it up and gossiped about it for weeks. The summer stories were the ones that lasted the longest. And Kagome wasn't interested in hers becoming part of the school's entertainment.

But even with her less than colourful, not quite that exciting ensemble, hoping that it would make her blend into the background a little better and make her a little bit easier to ignore, she was still spotted by a familiar face. And the one she didn't want to see most – the one she wasn't ready to see just yet – was the one that was approaching her right now.

Koga Wolfe – her boyfriend.

"Sweetheart." He said with a grin as his arms encircled her waist. "I missed you."

The embrace was familiar, but she could only return the gesture half-heartedly. "I missed you." She said quietly.

He pulled back from her slightly, looking down at her with those intense blue eyes, his smile wide. She couldn't help but return a small smile. She did still love this boy. She just hoped he wouldn't ask her...

"How was your summer?"

Kagome flinched at the question. Koga must have felt the jolt because his eyes lowered in concern: "Are you okay?"

"Fine." She lied, plastering on the previous smile again. "How was your summer?" she asked him quickly, hoping he had a nice long story to drone on and on about so that hers could be pushed to the wayside.

"Too long." He said, lowering his eyes affectionately at her. "I missed you so much."

His hand cupped the side of her face gently, just before he pressed his lips on her forehead. She smiled at the contact, realizing she had missed him just as much as he missed her. But...

"Have you seen Sango yet?" Kagome asked. "I didn't get a chance to talk to her during the summer."

"You didn't get a chance to talk to me either." Koga said quietly, a flicker of worry in his eyes. "You must have had a really good time in Cali."

His voice sounded hopeful: wanting her to say just the opposite of his last sentence. "It..." Kagome stopped. That was all it took. Just trying to start a sentence about her summer brought everything back. Everything that she wasn't ready to share yet. At least not with her boyfriend. "It was interesting."

The look in Koga's eyes showed that his doubt hadn't been completely satisfied with that answer, but he didn't press: "Well I saw Sango with Miroku in the library. You know, there's this rumor going around that they hooked up over summer."

Kagome smiled slightly. That was exactly what she didn't want of her summer – to become a story passed on from some unreliable source to every corner of the school. Although, Kagome didn't quite doubt this rumor at all: she knew all about her best friend's crush on Miroku, despite them being polar opposites. But opposites attracted, didn't they? And Miroku loved Sango since freshmen year. All of this was just a matter of time.

"I guess I'll find out when I see her then." She said with a shrug.

Just as Koga had said, Sango was in the library with Miroku in tow. The two had pushed their chairs right next to each other, their heads leaned towards each other, secretive smiles on their face. Kagome felt a wave of happiness for her best friend. She could see the small tinge of blush on Sango's cheeks even with the distance. And the two of them were so cute together, it looked like they had been seeing each other for years. They were so oblivious to the world around them that Koga had to clear his throat as loudly as possibly, just to get one of them to look up.

Sango did, and smiled brightly when her eyes landed on Kagome: "Jelly!" she squealed.

Kagome's expression became just as bright when she heard Sango used her special nice name. The two of them had been best friends since prep school, and were always told that they complimented each other like everyone's favorite sandwich. So, one day for fun, Sango requested to be peanut butter while Kagome settled for jelly. They called each other that on-and-off since then.

"Peanut butter!" Kagome cheered. "I missed you!"

"I missed **you!**" Sango said as she jumped out of the chair to embrace her best friend: an embrace Kagome could genuinely return. "We have so much to talk about." She said in a lower tone, her eyes darting towards Miroku.

"I can only imagine." Kagome said with a wink, and Sango blushed slightly.

At that moment, Miroku stood up and walked towards the two girls. "It's nice to see you Kagome."

Kagome stepped back from her friend long enough to give Miroku a hug as well. "Nice to see you too Miroku. Had a nice summer?"

She said that last part with a suggestiveness not lost on him or Sango. Her friend's face got redder while Miroku just replied smugly: "It was wonderful. And how was yours?"

Ick. That question again, but Kagome had a quick cover: "I'm sure it wasn't as **wonderful** as yours."

That was enough teasing for now for Sango. "Come on guys, let's get to class. Don't wanna be late on our first day back." she said quickly.

And in an adorable move, Sango took Miroku's hand, their fingers lacing immediately before she proceeded to pull him out of the library with her. Kagome reached for Koga's hand as well, the two of them following behind more slowly.

"Aren't they cute together?" Koga said with an observatory tone. "It's pretty obvious that they hooked up over the holiday huh?"

"Something might have happened." Kagome said with a smirk.

"You know, you still haven't told me about your summer." Koga said quietly.

"You haven't either." She replied. "'Too long' doesn't count as a response."

Koga chuckled. "You're right." He took a breath, and Kagome smiled inside, knowing she was about to get a lengthy tale. "I was a camp counselor for the first month for a bunch of ten-year-olds. But it was okay, because I was the athletics counselor and made a lot of dough. Saw a couple future track stars too. Then the following month I basically lagged around the house, waiting for your postcards and going out when something interesting came about."

"You got my postcards?"

"All nine of them." He said. "They were pretty cryptic though. I couldn't quite tell if you were really having a 'good summer' like you wrote."

Kagome could only imagine. If Koga had looked really closely, he would have noticed too that all the postcards had the same exact words, but written in different order – "It's warm in Cali, but I'm having a good summer. I miss you – Kags," was one, and then another would be "I miss you. I'm having a good summer. It's so warm in Cali – Kags."

"Did you hang out with Sango and Miroku at all over summer?" Kagome asked next.

"Not really. I saw them around at a couple of parties. But like I said...I kinda just kept to myself in the house, waiting for word from you."

Great: now he was going to make her feel bad about not writing/calling/contacting more. She didn't look at him, knowing his face had to be in full solemn mode. "Well I wrote, right?"

"I guess." Koga said with a shrug. There was a short pause. "So..." he said in an urging tone, basically hinting to Kagome that she would not be able to avoid this question much longer. "Did you have a good summer?"

Kagome looked up at her boyfriend, into those usually comforting deep blue eyes, and against her will, found herself wishing they were another color: a color she had become very familiar with over the summer. She didn't think this was possible at all, for so much to change in one summer. But things had changed...and the change was irreversible.

"Well–"

"Hold that thought." Koga said as his eyes floated up at the hall clock, "We're about to be so late for homeroom." He planted a quick kiss on her lips before rushing in the opposite direction. "We'll talk at lunch!" he called to her over his shoulder.

Kagome sighed: as if lunch would cover her whole summer. She turned to head towards her respective homeroom. She made it just before the bell, and slipped into her usual seat next to Sango.

"You and Koga were catching up then?" Sango whispered once the homeroom teacher started taking roll. Her name was at the top – Sango Avalone – and had been called already.

Kagome waited for her own name before replying: "Something like that."

"So, how do you feel about coming over to my place after school so we can catch up?" Sango offered. "I'm sure you have loads to tell me about your fabulous summer in Cali. It must have rocked with the way I didn't hear from you at all."

Kagome smiled guiltily. "I didn't mean to be so out of touch the way I was. It was a stress just to send Koga a couple postcards here and there. But you know how insecure he was when I was leaving, so I couldn't ignore him–"

"The way you ignored me?"

More guilt. "I didn't mean it like that Sango."

"Relax Jelly, I'm just picking on you." Sango said with a smile. "I doubt I would have had any time to sit on the phone and talk to you with the way **I** was busy over the summer."

That blush came back to her cheeks after that statement, and Kagome couldn't resist a giggle. "Yeah, I'm definitely interested in getting together after school. We clearly **do** have a lot to catch up on."

The two girls exchanged knowing smiles just before their homeroom teacher called the class to attention.

"Everyone, everyone, we have a new student joining us here at Shikon High, and specifically joining this homeroom. So I hope you treat him with the respect and hospitality we show our current peers now."

"Ooo, its a **him**?" Kikyo Hitomi gushed. "Well then, I'll treat him with respect, hospitality and maybe a little something else."

Her gaggle of female followers giggled at her smart remark, but it only made Kagome groan. If there was one person she couldn't stand, it was Kikyo Hitomi. The girl was stunning with a porcelain complexion and long hair the color of midnight and could have any guy of her choice, but had always seemed to have a hankering for other people's boyfriends: Kagome's in particular. Ever since freshmen year, Kagome had to protect boyfriend after boyfriend from Kikyo's clutches. Some of them she stayed with, and some she just dumped out of sheer frustration. The worst part was, once they were dumped, Kikyo wasn't interested in them anymore. It literally had to be someone's boyfriend, or she wasn't going for it. It was one of many things that kept Kikyo and Kagome on each other's bad sides. That and a couple of other things she would rather not remember.

"Yes Ms. Hitomi, it's a him. And he's quite handsome if I do say so myself."

"Ms. Starr!" Kikyo said in an overly-shocked voice, making her little group start giggling again while Ms. Starr blushed a little.

Kagome felt another groan about to leave her throat, when a different sound beat her to it. It was the sound of someone clearing their throat. The sound came from behind her, and she – along with everyone else in the class – turned around to see who it was.

Kagome's jaw dropped at the sight.

It was a guy – a hanyou – and presumably the new student. He was also unbelievably attractive. He was tall, and had to be a few inches over six feet. His body frame was slender, but defined: evident from the muscular arms in plain view from his t-shirt. A tribal tattoo was wrapped around his toned left bicep. A pair of pointed dog ears was perched atop his head, colored in the same stunning silver that was his long mane of hair. But it was eyes that made that made the girls sigh collectively: his irises were painted a shimmering gold.

As he made his way to the front the classroom, every single female flipped their hair or batted their eyelashes. All except Kagome, who just kept staring in muted shock. Even Ms. Starr was flustered at first, fumbling over her roll sheet and smiling uncontrollably.

"Well class...hehe...this is Inuyasha Takashi, our new student." She finally managed to say.

"He's **gorgeous**." Kikyo gushed loudly to her friends, so that Inuyasha would hear.

He glanced in her direction and gave her a smile to show that he had heard her. Kikyo smiled in turn, unable to resist.

"I don't believe this." Kagome said breathlessly, finally looking away from Inuyasha. "I really don't believe this."

"Me neither." Sango said, her voice mystified. "The guy **is** gorgeous. I certainly wasn't expecting him."

"Yeah, me neither." Kagome muttered to herself.

"Well then Mr. Takashi. Take a seat wherever you like."

There was a loud shuffle in the room after that statement, and magically, the only available seat moved from the back of the room to next to Kikyo. Kagome could have gagged – it wasn't the first time she had seen that seat shuffle trick go down. But she was too busy trying to figure out what to do with herself. The next thing that happened didn't help her much at all either, for Inuyasha took the empty seat and dragged it away from next to Kikyo and plopped it right next to Kagome.

"Will this be okay?" he asked Ms. Starr, but his eyes were on Kagome.

"Um...sure I guess." Ms. Starr said uncertainly, while Kikyo gaped jealously.

"Ms. Starr!" Kikyo said in an outraged tone. "He's not seated in a proper column!"

"Oh but Ms. Starr," Inuyasha said, his voice so warm and smooth it would have melted butter. "Kagome and I go way back, and I want to sit next to someone I'm familiar with."

Kagome heard her best friend gasp, before whispering excitedly in her ear: "You **know** this guy?"

Kagome whimpered: "Sort of?"

Ms. Starr was instantly charmed, a ridiculously bright smile on her face: "Yes, well, that makes perfect sense. You can stay there Mr. Takashi."

"Inuyasha, please." He said smoothly.

Ms. Starr giggled: "Inuyasha then."

Kikyo scoffed loudly while Kagome tried to focus on becoming invisible. But she couldn't ignore the feeling of those amber eyes boring into her skin anymore. She finally looked up to meet his intense gaze. A slow smile started growing on his face: "Hey Kagome," he said in a low voice.

She couldn't respond: still too caught up in the fact that Inuyasha was actually here in front of her. Almost as if he had finally managed to pull himself from her dreams and manifest into a solid form made of flesh and bone. She wasn't sure how she was feeling about him being here yet, but she couldn't deny the slow growth of warmth in her blood.

"Aren't you going to say 'hi'?" he said teasingly.

She opened her mouth to say something, but all that came out was a sharp and unattractive croaking noise, that made him chuckle. She shut her mouth immediately, an embarrassed blush quickly spreading across her face.

Inuyasha still kept his easy smile on as he reached out to tuck strands of her dark hair behind her ear. "I'm still leaving you speechless, huh." He teased again.

"Inuyasha, I–"

But she lost the rest of her sentence when she realized his hand was now tucked under her chin, gently pulling her face closer to his. Her face flamed as she pulled herself out of his grasp, only seconds before they could have kissed.

"What are you doing?" she hissed.

Another throaty chuckle before: "Not in class, then? Alright, I'll behave."

Embarrassment. Sheer embarrassment was all Kagome could feel. That and lust: total and utter lust. _How is this happening to me,_ she asked herself as she moved dangerously close to Sango's chair and further way from Inuyasha's.

Sango, who had all this time been watching her best friend incredulously, now whispered harshly: "Mind telling me what the fuck that was all about?"

Kagome closed her eyes for a second, tried to convince herself she was dreaming, but found Inuyasha still sitting in the seat next to hers when she opened them. She groaned at her fortune and misfortune before putting her head on her desk, buried in her folded arms.

Glancing between Inuyasha's smug expression and Kagome's distressed demeanour, Sango murmured to herself: "We clearly **do** have a lot to catch up on."

* * *

**Author's Note: theres the first chapter. i feel like this story will be a good one. but i wont know until i hear from you the readers. so leave me a review, please and thanks :)**

**(PS - constructive criticism only, please)**

**see you in the next chapter,**

**Brin. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: Still dont own****  
**

* * *

**Chapter Two**

By lunch, Inuyasha Takashi had become talk of the school. Girls who hadn't seen him yet were rushing around the building, hoping to catch a peak of the silver-haired angel. Even the guys wanted to check him out – to stake out what the new competition was. Those who were fortunate enough to have already had a class with him, were whispering excitedly amongst themselves about his brilliance in each class, about his amazing athletic ability – from those who were in his fourth period gym class – and of course, the obvious: his good looks.

And then there were those who were in his homeroom, who had seen all that suspicious activity between he and Kagome, and were formulating their own creative tales about that in particular. Creative tales that spawned creative questions that Kagome was trying so hard to ignore:

_"Where do you two know each other?"_

_"What kind of relationship is that?"_

_"Do Koga and Inuyasha know each other too?"_

And then everyone's favorite question:

_"Was he really about to kiss you in homeroom today?"_

Kagome had been secretly hating Inuyasha for doing that in homeroom this morning. And at the same time, she was secretly hating herself for pulling away. God, when did life get so damn confusing? What was he doing here anyway? She had left him back in California at the end of summer. Seeing him in September felt like he was breaking some form of summer fling rules.

And yet...was that summer really just a fling?

Argh. Confusion.

For the umpteenth time that day, Kagome tried to make herself invisible, but to no avail. Even as she made her way to her usual lunch table, she was badgered by everyone with all kinds of questions and made-up tales that needed her approval for whether they were true or false. By the time she reached the table, she felt beyond harassed: she was just plain tired. She collapsed into the seat next to Sango, the only person who hadn't been hounding her for answer – for even Sango's boyfriend was interested in the relationship between his girlfriend's best friend and his new friend. Then again, Sango knew she'd get all the answers she needed later on, so why press now?

"This is the longest day in history." Kagome said to herself. Then, upon seeing who was coming towards her, she muttered: "And getting longer."

"Hey sweetheart," Koga said brightly. At that moment, a group of girls that were passing giggled to themselves. A look of uncertainy crossed Koga's face before he said: "Strange morning huh."

"It's different." Kagome offered as Koga took the seat across from her.

"Everybody's taling about this new guy, Inuyasha Takashi. You heard?"

Fuck. Kagome did **not** want to have this conversation. "He's in my homeroom."

"Yeah I heard that too." Koga said quietly.

Kagome turned to her best friend, eyes pleading for her to do something before this conversation got ugly. Quickly taking the hint Sango brought up her displeasure of being in Ms. Kastroffe's Calculus class yet again, especially for their senior year.

"The woman is a dragon lady." Sango hissed. "And she hates me."

"Who hates my baby?" The question came from Miroku, who now slipped into the space on the other side of Sango, placing a soft kiss on her cheek.

Sango fought off a smile before murmuring: "Ms. Kastroffe."

Miroku rolled his eyes: "The dragon lady? I can't stand her either. Luckily, I escaped her clutches this year."

"I've never had her." Koga said thoughtfully.

"Be grateful. The lady is a beast. I've had her for all four years of schooling. She made fucking algebra seem hard." Sango groaned. "I don't know why she keeps taking me in her classes. She just wants to punish me, and never ever let me pass math."

"You pass math just fine." Kagome mentioned

"Yeah, sure, **after** you spend the whole weekend reteaching me the lessons." Another anguished groan. "Jeez, this is a mess."

"At least you don't have Mr. Rollo again." Miroku said with a frown, and Kagome nodded in agreement. "Me, Kags and Yash just had his class before this, and he still talks in that alien speak. He has to be the worst science teacher in the world. Of course, Mr. Brillant seemed to be picking up everything okay, but I've decided he's just a dork in attractive clothing."

"Mr. Brillant?" Sango said, her tone questioning.

"Inuyasha." Miroku said nonchalantly, not realizing he had just brought up the very thing the both girls were trying to avoid. "He's pretty smart, and that's coming from me: the smartest guy on the planet."

"You wish." Sango said rolling her eyes.

"Come on Sango," Miroku prodded. "You know I'm smart."

"You're pretty dumb if you think your hand is going to get to climb another inch up my skirt before I slap the taste out of your mouth." She said dangerously.

Suddenly, both of Miroku's hands were flat on the lunch table. "I can take hint." He said.

"How is he?" Koga asked suddenly. "Inuyasha, I mean. Is he a good guy?"

"He's pretty decent." Miroku said. "A smarty-pants, like I mentioned before, but pretty cool too. And master flirt: he has all the girls in this school tripping over themselves just to stand across the hall from him." Miroku laughed at his little joke.

Koga glanced at Kagome to check for a reaction. She tried her best to squash the twinge of jealousy threatening to grow in her chest.

"He told me you guys know each other from over the summer too Kags. That you guys met while you were in Cali?" Miroku said thoughtfully, sending the conversation in the wrong direction. "What's up with that?"

Shit. "Well...uh..."

Kagome glanced desparately at her best friend, but Sango could only look back helplessly. She bit her bottom lip to give herself an extra millisecond of stall time – just enough for a new distraction to come in. However, the new distraction wasn't necessarily a helpful one.

"Hey guys. Mind if I sit here?"

Inuyasha.

"Yash." Miroku said pleasantly. "We were just talking about you."

"Really?" Inuyasha said as he sat down next to Koga, his eyes immediately going to Kagome. "About what exactly?"

Kagome looked away from his intense gaze, look once again pleadingly at Sango. Finally, she spoke up: "We were talking about how brillant you were in Physics class today."

Miroku looked puzzled. "No we were–uhh..." His eyes finally met Sango's burning gaze. "...uhh, yeah, we were?"

"Mr. Rollo has to be one of the worst science teachers ever," Sango continued, ignoring Miroku's slowness. "For you to sit there and actually understand what he was saying..."

Inuyasha shrugged humbly: "I study," was all he said in response. He glanced at Kagome, that smile on his face again. "Kags gets it too, don't you?"

Kagome couldn't resist smiling back: "Not as well as you do."

"We can work on that." He said, his voice dropping an octave, and sending a shiver up Kagome's spine.

"Physics isn't really my best." Koga said, a little louder than necessary. Kagome glanced at him to find his expression hardened. "Although I do Biology instead. But you could say I'm more of an athletics person myself."

"That's true. You're basically captain for every sport at this school." Kagome made sure to say that with just enough adoration.

It worked, and Koga's expression softened: "Not every sport." He said in a considerably softer tone. "Just most."

"Well, I'm talking to the right guy then." Inuyasha said with a grin. "This school have a basketball team?"

"This school has any sport you might be interested in." Sango said. "We have Ultimate Frisbee for christ's sake."

"Hey!" Miroku said indignantly. "There is absolutely nothing wrong with Ultimate Frisbee."

Sango just rolled her eyes. "That's just because **you **do Ultimate Frisbee."

"What's your point?"

As the two of them went into a heated debate over the legitimacy of Ultimate Frisbee as a sport, Kagome let her gaze wander. And against her will, she found herself looking at Inuyasha: his flawless tan of his skin, the way his amber eyes glimmered in the bright sunlight. She watched his long slender fingers grasp the fork, and blushed at remembering other things they had grasped.

And Koga, seeing the reddening of her cheeks while she looked away from Inuyasha, was now looking between both of them, his expression skeptic. Fuck, this was bad.

Then, out of the blue, Inuyasha looked up at Kagome, a playfully seductive grin on his face: "So Kagome," he said slowly, as his hand creeped across the table to meet hers. "We're not in class now..."

The suggestiveness in his tone wasn't lost on anyone. Even Sango and Miroku looked up from their discussion. Fuck. "Pass." She said nonchalantly, taking her hand from his grasp and hoping he'd drop it.

He didn't: "Don't be a tease."

And that was the last straw for Koga: "Excuse me?" his voice sounded enraged.

As it should be: it was pretty obvious that this new and gorgeous guy was flirting with his year-long girlfriend. What wasn't there to be mad about?

Something had to give at one point.

"I need to talk to you." Kagome said to Inuyasha.

His grin grew. "Whatever you wanna call it babe."

"Stop it." She said in a angry hiss, glancing at Koga to check his reaction. His expression reflected irritation. She stood up quickly, "We'll be right back."

Inuyasha stood up more slowly, smugly: "That's what she's telling you right now."

Kagome shot him the fiercest look she could muster up before saying through clenched teeth: "We'll be right back."

She turned to face Koga, who was also on his feet, and appeared to be bursting at the seams with anger. "Kagome..." he said in a growl.

"Right back." She promised softly, and gave him a light, tender kiss on the mouth.

The smugness on Inuyasha's face vanished after that. Kagome grabbed his wrist and pulled him away from the lunch table. Most of the upper school ate outside, so she brought him back inside the school building where they were less likely to be interrupted by someone.

And yet, standing all alone with Inuyasha in an empty school building made her temporarily forget what she had dragged him in here for, and was quickly being replaced with...other things to do. Why did he have to be so fucking hot? Couldn't he have gotten a pimple on that perfect little nose or **something**?

Inuyasha smirked, obviously taking her silence for her wanting him to make the first move. He took a step towards her, closing the awkward space between them. "I didn't think you wanted to talk." He said in a whisper.

She tried to speak, but her chest only tightened, and she was left gaping. Inuyasha leaned closer to her, cupping the side of her face and taking a soft nibble on her bottom lip.

She gasped. "Inuyasha..." she said breathlessly.

His hands found her waist, pulling her body impossibly close to hers. "Hmmm?"

Her bottom lip trembled. "Please..."

"You don't have to beg," he said hoarsely in her ear as his lips traced its outline.

She took a deep breath. "Stop."

She felt him freeze. "Stop?"

"Stop." She said more firmly. "Get off of me."

He hesitated, then pulled back slowly. He regarded her expression for a long time, and she hoped that it reflected seriousness. But instead he grinned again. "So not in school at all? Or not in the hallways? We could always find some sort of utility closet..."

"What are you doing here?" she asked finally.

He looked confused. "You brought me here."

"No-o. I mean, what are you doing at my school?"

He paused. "I transferred. Didn't think I'd find you though. What are the odds right?"

He was smiling again, but this time Kagome couldn't smile back. "Inuyasha, things aren't going to be the same here?"

He frowned. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about...us." she said finally. She had been so afraid to say the word, but there it was: us. "We can't here."

"Why not?"

"Because here..." she puased to look away from him. "I have a boyfriend, Inuyasha."

There was a long silence, then: "You never told me you had a boyfriend."

"I didn't think it was important at the time."

"And then after we–"

"I didn't think it mattered." She said cutting him off. "I didn't think I'd see you again."

Another long silence. Kagome risked a glance at Inuyasha. He wasn't looking at her. His face was blank, but his eyes were full of emotion: one she couldn't quite place.

"So...this summer...was just a fling." He said mostly to himself. He glanced at her, eyes intense and unreadable. "So basically you're telling me this summer was just a whim to you."

Kagome couldn't reply right away. It wasn't a whim, but... "It just can't continue here Inuyasha."

"Uh huh," was all he said. He bit the corner of his bottom lip for a moment before saying: "So, everything that happened–"

"Can you stop?" she pleaded. "You're making this more than it actually is."

"Am I?" He sounded agitated. "Well excuse me for thinking that this past summer wasn't just a fling and something had..." He paused, caught himself before going too far. He sighed. "Not that it matters. You have a boyfriend."

"Yeah, I do."

"Yeah. I gathered from the way that guy next to me kept shooting me death glares."

"Yeah...Koga tends to get jealous easily."

"Yeah..." He exhaled deeply and gave Kagome a long hard stare. "Were you going to write...like you said before you left?" He paused. "Like you had promised you would?"

"Inuyasha, don't–"

"I just want to know."

She sighed, pushed her bangs out of her face. "I would have emailed you once or twice."

"But more or less you were going to let me and this whole summer fade into the fucking background until it disappeared forever, is that right? What would it matter to really keep in touch, since you were never going to see me again, right? And you already have a fucking boyfriend here, so who fucking cares?"

Kagome hated his tone of voice: "Inuyasha, it's not like that."

"Yeah well, I don't think I really want to know what it's like anyway." He said harshly. "I'll see you around, alright? I really need to get some fucking air."

And then he turned to leave without another word.

"That didn't go quite well." Kagome said softly to herself.

But there was no need to worry. Because Inuyasha had been set straight before any unneccesary scandal could arise. She could now slip more comfortably back into school mode without any stress.

So why didn't see feel any better? Why didn't she return to lunch? Why did she instead find herself in a girls' bathroom stall, crying out the rest of the period?

* * *

**Author's Note: second chapter. hope you all like it so far**

**read and review (thanks!)**

**Brin. **


	3. Chapter 3

** Disclaimer: I don't own **

* * *

**Chapter Three**

The two girls had barely gotten inside the bedroom when Sango exploded: "You owe me a full story Kagome Higurashi. Not a half story. Not a quarter story. A **full** story with lots of minute details."

Kagome head straight for her friend's bed and sat down. "Yeah, yeah, I know." she said softly.

"Don't 'yeah, yeah, I know' me, Jelly." Sango said sternly as she continued to pace. "I had to keep quiet this whole day, waiting patiently for this moment, while fending off others who were so desperately trying to pry out of you the same story I wanted to know. You know how much that took? Do you Jelly? You better tell me every **single** detail, you hear me?"

Kagome sighed, rubbing her temples to ease the tension growing there. "I hear you PB."

"Good." Sango said with finality. Then she glanced down at her friend to see her expression pained. "Hey...you okay Kag?" Sango asked, her toned softened with concern.

Kagome sighed again, wondering how okay Sango would think she was if she told her she had spent the rest of the day fighting off more tears after completely breaking down in the girls' bathroom. Probably not that okay.

"I'm fine." She said quietly. "Just...long day is all."

"I can imagine." Sango said as she sat down next to her.

No, she couldn't. She could hardly imagine what it was like all day, having to deal with Inuyasha not quite looking at her anymore, flirting blatantly with other girls, and having to remain indifferent about it all for the sake of Koga. She couldn't imagine how it felt to wonder why she felt so weird about Inuyasha's flirting with other girls anyway, when she was already very much in love with her boyfriend. She couldn't imagine the contemplating over whether she really did still love Koga anymore, what had possessed her to push Inuyasha away, what she should do next. Today wasn't just long, it was rough.

But now she'd get to unwind a bit, to the one person in the whole world she could trust. Kagome hadn't really wanted to tell anyone, but that was before Inuyasha showed up in her homeroom. Now it seemed she didn't have a choice. But at least telling Sango would release some stress.

"We met in Cali." She began softly. "Over break."

"You and Inuyasha?"

"Yeah. I had seen him when I was in the mall during my first week there, but we didn't actually get formally introduced until the following week. Mimi and I went to this party, and he was there–""Mimi?"

"The girl I hung out with while I was there." Sango nodded. "Anyway, I had told her that I had seen this incredibly hot guy in the mall the other day and that he was at the party now. And it didn't take rocket science to realize I was talking about Inuyasha so she introduced us."

"And the rest is history?" Sango offered meekly.

If only it were that simple. She and Inuyasha spent the rest of that night sitting out by the pool deck, away from the rest of the party, picking each other's brains and laughing with one another. It was the first time Kagome felt like she was really enjoying herself since she landed in California. He offered to drive her home and, after explaining the situation to Mimi, she humbly accepted. They talked more during the drive, and exchanged numbers once they reached her house. He promised she'd be hearing from him really soon before driving off.

And really soon, turned out to be the very next day. She went downstairs the next morning, half asleep in a less than flattering state, to find him sitting at the breakfast table with her aunt and little cousin. Mortified wasn't even the right word. But Inuyasha just smiled like it didn't matter that her hair was doing something wild atop her head, or that she was wearing no shorts underneath her big tee. He just said something about needed to see her as soon as possible and jingling car keys to signify they were getting out of here. Kagome couldn't resist the spontaneity and quickly ate breakfast and changed for a day out.

He drove her all over the little town she was staying in, pointing out all the places he'd need to take her to. He told her about all the upcoming events that he would humbly be her escort for. He seemed to have planned an entire itinerary overnight about what she would be doing for the rest of her summer. And her smile grew with every word. She barely remembered that she had just met this guy last night. Already she couldn't imagine her summer without him.

And he was in every part of it. They were together almost everyday. Mimi faded into the background while Inuyasha stepped into the limelight. Sometimes they just hung out at each other's houses. The first time Kagome went to Inuyasha's house was after about two weeks of knowing each other. His mom was absolutely delighted to meet the girl her son couldn't stop talking about, which made both Kagome and Inuyasha turn a lovely shade of red. Kagome met his brother, only to find that though he just as unbelievably gorgeous as Inuyasha, he was not as friendly, and kept mostly to himself.

Then there were other times were Inuyasha would only tell Kagome to wear a swimsuit – no other clues – and leave her speechless to find out they were going surfing, or snorkeling or some crazy thing she had never done before. The idea of parasailing had scared the shit out of her when he had first suggested it. But then he promised to be up there with her. And he was: strapped in behind her so that his arms were wrapped loosely around her shoulders. Kagome completely forgot about being scared: partially because was she was in the air, the rush of things fueled her body with excitement, but also because she had comfort in knowing that she was in Inuyasha's arms.

That's when things started changing. That's when Kagome should have caught herself before she let her hormones get the best of her. But even as she saw it happening, she was powerless to stop it because...well, she didn't want it to stop.

"He kissed me that day." Kagome said quietly.

Sango's eyes widened: "Really."

Kagome nodded. "He walked me to my door, like always. But before he let me in, he took a step towards me and kissed me. It was the sweetest touch. He held me tenderly, as if afraid to hurt me, and kissed me like I was precious." Kagome had to smile at the memory. "His hands didn't wander and grope, and his kiss didn't go any further than what I wanted. He left everything up to me. And when he pulled back, he told me exactly that: that everything was up to me, and if I never wanted him to kiss me again, he could respect that, but he just had to get that first one off."

"What a gentleman." Sango said with a smile.

"Yeah..." Kagome said whimsically.

There was a long pause, then Sango said indignantly: "Wait...hello?! Is that all? I **know** that's not all."

Kagome grinned. "No that's not all. I told him he could kiss me whenever he wanted to, and he said something like wanting to kiss me all the time, and...I don't know...I guess after that, we were...I don't want to say dating, but–"

"I get it. You guys hung out still, but you kissed more. Friends with benefits. Got it."

"But it didn't feel like that." Kagome said. "You don't get it. It wasn't just: we're friends who kiss each other now. It felt like...so much more than that. He's so sweet Sango. So incredibly sweet to me. He's kind of mean sometimes, and pretty arrogant, but he's also smart, and funny, and he loves his mom, and he makes me smile and–"

"Hang on Jelly, take a breath." Sango said to slow her friend down.

Kagome smiled faintly: "Sorry."

"So you had a crush, then? And he had a crush on you?"

"It was more than just a crush." Kagome paused. "He...he told me he loved me." She said in a whisper.

Sango's eyes ballooned again: "What?!"

Kagome looked away from her friend's shocked expression. "Yeah..."

"And...how?"

"Well, we had been talking about his life, and his being a hanyou – he gets a lot of shit for it back there – and he told me that, except for his mom, I was the only person who didn't care. That I saw him as Inuyasha, not as Inuyasha: the sexy hanyou, or Inuyasha: the dirty half-demon. And then I told him that I still thought he was sexy and then we laughed and then...he said it."

Another pause. "And?"

"And...I said it back."

"You told Inuyasha you loved him?"

"Yeah..."

"But what about Koga?"

"I know. Telling Inuyasha I love him doesn't cancel out my feelings for Koga."

Sango looked unconvinced: "I guess."

"Well that's not even the whole of it."

"Oh jeez Kagome. There's more?"

Kagome nodded. "We had started kissing, and it was pretty heated, and then...well, next thing I know we..." Kagome's cheeks burned at the very thought. "Well we..." Damn, and now she couldn't even get the words out.

But clearly the words she **had **gotten out were enough for Sango to get the picture. "Kagome...don't tell me you guys..." She raised her eyes brows and gave an expression that spoke volumes.

Slowly, Kagome nodded. Sango exploded in surprise: "I don't believe you!"

"You don't understand." Kagome said quickly.

"I realize that!"

"It felt so right. It felt more right than anything in a long time. You know how things were going back here." Sango nodded solemnly. "Well, now it felt like those things didn't matter, and all that mattered was Inuyasha, and only I mattered to him."

"Did you...just once?"

Kagome shook her head, still blushing: "Three times in total."

Sango took a deep breath. "So things really did get serious."

"Yeah they did."

"So I don't understand Kagome. If you love Inuyasha, why are you still with Koga?"

"Well, here's the part where I'm confused. Because in that last week before school started, when I was home, I started having...second thoughts about things."

"Second thoughts?"

"It's not that I regretted my actions, because I didn't. But then I wondered if I just did it to escape everything. I mean, here I was: half way across the country, away from everything I'm familiar with into unknown terrain. I had a chance to do things that I couldn't do here, and would never get to do here. I had a chance to live."

Kagome paused: "And it's possible that in the experience of living, I got a little too caught up in the person who let me live. And maybe all those feelings I thought I had were...misguided. And at the time, it didn't matter to me cause, I didn't think I'd see him again. I thought I could just look back on the memories of my summer and enjoy them as memories. Good memories of course."

"And then Inuyasha comes sauntering back into your life on the first day of school." Sango summed up nicely.

"Exactly."

"Well you have to decide then."

"I did decide. I spoke to Inuyasha at lunch today and told him that what happened in Cali, can't happen here."

"How did he take it?"

"Not well, but I can't do anything about that. I do have a boyfriend here."

"Yeah, a boyfriend you were planning to break up with when you got back from vacation."

Kagome was caught at that. She had been planning to break up with Koga when she got back from break. And spending the summer with Inuyasha had fuelled that thought all the more. But somewhere between landing back in NY and the first day of school, she couldn't help but feel guilty about breaking up with him after she was in the wrong. She could only keep her summer to herself, and hope that Koga never found out about it. He loved her, and she had betrayed that love.

"I can't break up with Koga." She said quietly. "I love him."

Sango sighed. "I know you do."

"Being with Inuyasha almost made me see that even more. I think I was just hurting because of...well, because of what happened–" Sango nodded knowingly. "–and Inuyasha and this vacation was just my outlet from everything. But now I'm back, and I'm ready to get back to my life before Inuyasha."

"But he goes to your school now Jelly. You can't go back to your life before him if he goes to your school."

"I know," Kagome said softly. "But I can try, can't I?"

"I guess."

The two girls sat quietly in their own thoughts for another couple of moments, before Kagome finally said: "So tell me about **your** summer."

Sango blushed profusely. "Oh Kagome, it was simply amazing."

"What's going on with you and Miroku? Is it official?"

"It's pretty official." Sango said with a smile.

"How'd it happen? And I don't want a half-story."

Sango giggled, and Kagome had to smile at her friend's happiness. "Well, it started when I came back from my aunt's house – I was there for a week. And Mom told me I had a message from a boy to call him when I got back. Mom said they didn't leave a name, so I could only assume it was Miroku. But when I called him, he told me he didn't call since he knew I wasn't home. And then he told me the thought of some other guy moving in on his Sango drove him insane, and now was the time to set some barriers."

"Sounds like Miroku." Kagome said with a snort.

"Yeah well, I told him to shove it, and that if other guys that weren't him wanted to call me, they could, but he wasn't having it. So then he asked me out, and I said whatever, and – god, I needed you that day Kagome, cause I didn't have a clue what to wear..."

Kagome had to giggle at that: the thought of Sango worrying about what to put on.

"...But I pulled it off okay, and it was a great date, save for the fact that Miroku kept trying to grope me in true Miroku fashion. And then we were inseparable after that." Sango finished her sentence with a bright smile.

"Well it's about time I say." Kagome said. "He's loved you forever you know."

"I know." Sango said, rolling her eyes.

Kagome grinned. "Awww, Sango has a boyfriend."

"Shut up Kagome, you sound like my parents." She rolled her eyes again.

Kagome could imagine: Sango's parents had been promoting the 'Sango and Miroku' show every since he confessed his undying love for her at their dining table. They thought Miroku was 'adorable'.

Sango fell back on her bed and grabbed a pillow. "I'm happy though." She said softly. She gave the pillow a squeeze. "Miroku makes me happy."

Kagome lied down next to her friend. "That's what matters right? Even if you fight sometimes, and even if he gropes you a lot...he makes you happy."

Sango turned to face Kagome. "Does Koga still make you happy?"

She faced Sango as well. "Of course."

"Something seems different between the two of you."

"Well, there's the part that I'm harboring this awful dirty secret from him, and the main part of that secret now sits next to me in Physics class."

"Not just Inuyasha. You guys just don't get the way you used to."

"I know that. We had hit a rough patch. But I want to work it out with him."

"Because he makes you happy?"

"Because he makes me very happy."

"Well..." Sango turned to lie on her back again. "That's all that matters then."

Kagome nodded, but it didn't feel real. Koga did make her happy, that was without a doubt. But Sango was right: so much had changed between them. And now there was this thing with Inuyasha that would be hanging over them like a cloud. Especially with him going to their school now.

And there was how she felt about Inuyasha herself...

"Are you going to tell him?"

"Koga?"

"Yeah..."

"I can't Sango. He'll break up with me for sure."

"He deserves to know though Kags."

"I know he does...but, I can't. Not so soon."

"The longer you wait, the worse it might be."

Kagome grabbed a pillow and pulled it over her head. God she didn't want to hear this right now. "Can you play the role of my conscience later, PB?"

Sango sighed. "Fine. You know I'm just looking out for you."

"I know."

There was another long silence, before Sango spoke again:

"So, can I ask you a question?"

Sango's voice came out muffled since Kagome was buried under the pillow, but she got the gist of what she said. Removing the pillow she said: "Sure, what's up?"

"Did it hurt?"

* * *

**Author's Note: heres another chapter. hope you all like it. seems you guys like how the story is going so far.**

**read and review (thanks!)**

**see you in the next chapter,**

**Brin. **


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha...not even a lil bit (lol)****  
**

* * *

**Chapter Four**

Inuyasha had only been at school for five days, and already he had made an impact. He was on the top of all his classes and a favorite of his teachers, without having to do the kiss ass part of the job. He tried out for the swim and basketball team and blew his competition out of the water, and even stunned Koga into silence. And then there was the fact that every day he kept coming to school more gorgeous than the day before, if this was even possible. Kikyo was the girl making the hardest play at him, but none of the other females were giving him to her without a fight.

And Kagome had to stand by and watch all this happen. And she was annoyed about it all. If Inuyasha had to show up at her school, couldn't he have come in quietly? Why all the hype? It was **so** unnecessary. He wasn't even that cool.

Okay, that was a lie. Inuyasha was very cool. He was incredibly smart, and an athletics champion. And only an idiot would deny his exotic good looks. But still...Kagome could have done without all the fuss.

And then there was the fact that he was in seventy-five percent of her classes. With Monday's conversation between them still fresh in their minds, neither of them had spoken a word to each other. She expected the weirdness to blow over after a couple of days, but it wasn't going to be easy if they had to be basically inseperable.

"This is disgusting." Kagome hissed to Sango in the library.

They both shared a free period on Friday. Instead of going to the senior lounge, where the seniors normally hung out during their frees, Kagome begged Sango to go with her to the library: the one place she hoped she wouldn't run into Inuyasha – who, by fate's twisted joke, also shared that same free period she did.

But she should have known that smarty-pants would want to get some studying in his free time. Not that he was doing that now: for a group of immature sophomores, who were clearly skipping study hall to be here, were giggling around him while he showed them his fangs.

"Are they real?" One of the girls gushed in a whisper.

"Course babe." Inuyasha replied with a smirk.

More annoying giggles. Kagome could strangle each one of them. "I mean, what kind of girl would want to stare at another boy's teeth for fuck's sake."

Sango shrugged, not even looking up from her novel. "Maybe those kind of girls." She said absently.

"And they're sophomores! Not only should they be in study hall if they have frees now, but how in the hell do they think they even have a chance with him? Inuyasha's a senior."

Sango turned a page: "Some guys like their girls young."

"It's still disgusting."

She sighed. "I'm sure you're right Jelly."

Kagome tried to go back to reading and ignore the spectacle going on a few feet away. But she had only manage to complete a paragraph before she heard another round of stifled giggles. She was compelled to look up, only to find the girls playing in his hair and touching his pointed ears.

"Your hair is so soft Inuyasha." One commented.

"And your ears are so fuzzy." Another said.

They twitched at the sound of that, which made the girl holding them jump a bit. But then they all just giggled again about how cute it was, while Inuyasha just sucked it all up, his expression smug.

"I honestly don't believe this." Kagome said, shaking her head irritably.

Sango frowned and looked at her friend. "Listen Kags, you wanted to come in here. Now if it's bothering you so much, we could leave." Kagome opened her mouth to retort, but Sango held up a silencing hand, signifying she wasn't done. "**Or** you could go do something to quell your irritation. Either way, I'm going to ask you to shut up cause I'm trying to finish this chapter before our next class."

"But Peanut–"

But now Sango took out her iPod and slipped the earphones in their respective ears. In the next instant, Kagome could hear her listening to Chris Brown's lastest song.

"Fine." Kagome said to herself before standing up. "I will do something about it then."

And before she could tell herself not to, she marched over to them, determined to put a stop to this foolishness.

"Um, excuse me girls."

The group of girls looked up at Kagome and immediately when into protective mode. They literally moved closer to Inuyasha simultaneously, as if to say 'back off girlie, get your own Yash time'. Puh-leeze.

"What?" One of them finally said, her tone snotty.

"I hate to break it to you, but I'm a prefect," Kagome pointed to her badge at this point – she had gotten it from the principal's office on Wednesday. "And I'm very aware of the fact that you girls are sophomores and should be in study hall at this time. Now, if you leave immediately, I won't report you guys for detentions."

The girls looked mortified while Inuyasha chuckled: "Sophomores huh? I thought you girls said you were juniors?"

Kagome stifled her own laugh at that one. In the next instant, all the girls had dispersed, covering their faces in sheer embarrassment. Good riddance too, those damn liars. Juniors – ha! As if they could pass for juniors with all the nonsensical childish giggling. Realizing her task was done Kagome was about to head back to her original seat. But something stopped her. She could feel someone staring at her...and there was only one person that it could be.

"What?" she said to Inuyasha.

"You don't have to be jealous Kagome." He said with a smirk. "There were only sophomores, wanting to have a little fun."

Kagome scoffed. "They were loud and annoying, and I was trying to study. This is a library, not a fun zone."

She was about to turn to leave again, when she heard his ever familiar chuckle. "What now?" she said in expiration.

"So you **were** jealous then." He said, smirk still in place.

"No-o." She said. "Don't flatter yourself."

He made a 'tsk' noise. "And now you're in denial? You're making this too easy Kag."

She felt her cheeks starting to burn. "Shut up!" she exclaimed in her loudest whisper.

"There really is no need to be jealous." He sat up in his chair before reaching out and taking her hand softly. "You know you can play in my hair and stroke my ears whenever you want to."

And before Kagome could really formulate what was going to happen next, she found herself sitting in Inuyasha's lap, his arms wrapped loosely around her waist. Against her will, her face went ridiculously red.

"Inuyasha, I have to study." She said in an unconvincing tone.

"Bring your things and study with me." He said, his voice husky.

"I can't."

"Yeah you can." He whispered in her ear.

She shivered at the feel of his warm breath on her skin. Feeling as if she had no control over her actions, she turned to face Inuyasha. His face was so close, those golden eyes intense and focused only on her. God, it wouldn't take much for her to just lean over, brush her lips over his...

She felt her head moving closer, crawling millimetre by millimetre, closing the gap. She couldn't believe how badly she wanted this: she missed the warmth of his mouth, the sweetness of his kiss. Her eyelids got heavy, and closed, only seconds before their lips would meet.

"Inuyasha..." she said in a breath.

"Kagome?"

Kagome's eyes flew open at the sound of her name in her best friend's voice. Then, spinning around to see Sango standing right in front of her, made her pull herself and basically fall out of Inuyasha's lap.

"Sango! I–" Now she was feeling the embarrassment those sophomores had to have been feeling. "I was just–"

"The period is almost over." Sango said slowly, still staring at her friend sceptically. "I thought you might want to grab something from the vending machines before heading to class. But if you're busy..."

"Sango." Kagome hissed, her eyes narrowing dangerously.

"Well you **looked** busy," was all Sango had as a reply.

Kagome tried to pretend that her face wasn't as red as a fire hydrant. "Let's get going then." She said softly.

"Hang on."

Kagome looked over her shoulder to see Inuyasha getting out of his chair. He did it slowly, gracefully, almost taking it to an art form. Why couldn't he move gangly or something? Why did everything he did have to look so damn sexy?

"I don't think we've really been introduced." He was saying to Sango. He took a step in front of Kagome and stretched out his hand. "Sango, I assume. Kagome spoke highly of you over break."

Sango blushed a light red, as she meekly took Inuyasha's hand. Kagome couldn't believe the little sparks of envy she was feeling as she watched. "Well, I'd think she would." Sango said, her voice sounding almost shy. "We're best friends."

"I gathered." He said in a throaty tone that gave both girls shivers up their spine.

This was getting to be too much. "Come on Sango, we don't want to be late." Kagome said quickly, pulling the hand that Inuyasha was holding and trying to drag her away.

"See you girls." Inuyasha said humbly before getting back in his chair.

"Finally." Kagome said in a sigh of relief once the two of them were alone in the hallway. "A class without Inuyasha."

Her declaration was met with silence, and when Kagome glanced at Sango, she was giving her a look of disbelief.

"What? You can't blame me for being happy to go to a class without him there. He's in all my damn classes for goodness' sake."

Sango narrowed her eyes. "Kagome you were about to kiss that boy back there if I hadn't said something."

And in a now very common move, Kagome's cheeks flamed: "No I wasn't."

"Come on Kags, don't lie to me, we're bigger than that."

Kagome paused, then said: "I got caught up in the moment. That's all it was. Nothing serious, PB."

"Yeah, nothing serious my ass. You're lucky it was just the three of us in the library, or else your secret would have been out Jelly. Bad enough everyone already thinks the two of you are fucking–"

"Peanut butter!" Kagome hissed.

"They already think that Jelly." Sango said in the same angry tone.

"So what are you doing, confirming their rumors?"

"Fine, fine, relax. You know me better than that. I said I wouldn't broadcast, and I'm not going to start now. The point I'm getting at is that if you're going to have something with Yash on the side, you might want to be a little more discreet about it."

"I'm **not** going to have anything with him on the side." Kagome said firmly. "What happened over summer is done."

"Keep telling yourself that Jelly." Sango said under her breath.

Even though Kagome heard it, she didn't want to get into a fight about Inuyasha with her friend. Inuyasha wasn't **that** important.

"I have to get something at my locker." Kagome said as they were coming up to hers. "Save me a seat?"

"Gotcha." Sango said as she continued down the hall.

Kagome didn't really need anything at her locker but to catch her breath. She spun the combination, opened the door, and literally stuck her head inside, taking long inhales of the new book smell inside. How could she lost it so much back at the library? Was she really about to kiss him back there? Was it really **her** and not **him?** She really didn't need any close calls like that. Not at this school, and not with everyone clearly thinking that she and Inuyasha were fucking.

God, did Koga think that? To be perfectly honest, she hadn't really sat down and spoken to him since school started back. She needed to do something with him this weekend, just the two of them, like they used to before all this drama came blowing in between them.

A couple more breaths and she felt a bit calmer, more level-headed. She leaned out of her locker and slammed the door hard.

"Surprise."

She actually jumped as she turned around. Inuyasha was leaning against the locker next to hers, a seductive grin on his face.

"You scared me." She told him breathlessly.

"I noticed."

There was a long pause in which Inuyasha just looked at her. "What is it?" Kagome finally said. "Why are you staring at me?"

"Outside of the fact that I think you're beautiful?" he said, making her blush again. "I was wondering if you wanted to head to the senior lounge with me."

"I have class now."

"Cut. You're already late."

Kagome glanced at her watch. Shit, she was late. "I have class." She said again, turning to leave.

But she only managed to take two steps before she felt Inuyasha's hand close around her wrist, whipping her around and pulling her just as close as they had been in the library.

"Now then, if I remember clearly, this is where we left off a couple minutes ago." He said softly. His lips brushed the side of her face. "Care to continue?" He added in a breath.

She felt his lips travel down to her jaw line to her neck. "Inuyasha." His name came out of her mouth in a moan.

He pulled back to look at her, his eyes heavy. "Hmm?"

"Please..." her voice was still breathy. "Let me go."

His eyes narrowed. "What?"

"Let me go...please."

Now he rolled his eyes, but obeyed her wishes. "Not this shit again."

She took a step back and straightened her blouse. "You have to stop doing that." She told him.

"I was only going off your lead sweetheart." His said, his voice hard.

"My lead?"

"You came onto me hun, not the other way around."

She frowned. "You're the only pulling me into your lap."

"I would have pulled Sango into my lap too if she let me. You didn't say no, did you? And I just sat there. You were about to kiss me, and you know it."

His voice was so loud when he was angry. "Hush, someone might hear."

The hallway was deserted. "You're absolutely right, someone might hear." He said sarcastically.

Kagome groaned. "You know, sometimes I can't stand you."

"The feeling's mutual." Inuyasha said, folding his arms. "Trust me."

"Then why don't you just leave me alone?"

"I can assure you, Ms. Higurashi, that I haven't said a word to you all week, and it was definitely **you** who came up to me in the library."

The smugness of his tone upset her even more than the fact that he was right. "You're such an arrogant jerk."

"Well, you're such an annoying little tease."

"You know what, fine then. I'll leave you alone. Happy now?"

"I never said anything about wanting you to leave me alone, now did I? Want to make me happy?" He leaned in close, so that his next statement was in a whisper: "Stop resisting your feelings and come with me to the lounge."

Suddenly, all those feelings he was talking about started bubbling around in her chest. But she quickly put them to rest. "It's not going to be like that here Inuyasha."

He rolled his eyes. "Your loss as far as I'm concerned."

He shrugged before turning away from her and walking down the hall. Kagome ignored the part of her that wanted to run after him, and tell him that he could take her anywhere, so long as they could be together. That was the irrational part of her, the part that didn't think with her head. The logical part of her was what made her walk to her class even though she was about twenty minutes late. As far as she was concerned, thirty minutes left of class meant thirty minutes to get her head back on straight.

Sango was right, she couldn't keep acting on her urges anymore. Someone was bound to notice something at one point. She was going to have to be more careful if she wanted to keep things under-wraps.

Then again, Inuyasha would have to stop being so tempting all the time too.

As if that was ever going to happen.

* * *

**Author's Note: I had just finished writing this, and I was going to wait until later on to post, but I decided why not do it now? I'm flying back home from vacation tomorrow, and then school starts, so please bare with me if the chapters don't come as frequently as these four did. I promise to write and update as soon as I can.**

**read and review (thanks!)**

**until the next chapter, I'll be seeing you.**

**Brin. **


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I dont own...**

**

* * *

**

**Chapter Five**

"Koga!"

"Hey Koga!

"**Koga!**"

The dark haired wolf demon finally stopped and turned around at the sound of his name. Kagome breathed a sigh of relief. It was about time he stopped: she had been chasing after him for the past five minutes. She had actually started to worry that he might have been ignoring her.

"Didn't you hear me calling you before?" Kagome said, once she was near enough.

He shrugged nonchalantly: "I guess not."

"I called you about three times."

"Didn't hear." Kagome didn't like his cold tone. "What's up?"

"Hang on, let me catch my breath." She said in a pant. "Getting your attention was no easy feat you know."

Koga smiled slightly at that, and Kagome mentally breathed another sigh of relief. Smiles meant non-anger. Non-anger meant that her boyfriend hadn't been purposely ignoring her, and just honestly couldn't hear her yelling at him.

Even though lately, that's what she had been feeling: that Koga was avoiding her. Ever since Monday when she and Inuyasha had their little spat, Koga really wasn't looking her quite in the eye anymore. He disappeared right after school that day, didn't pick her up the following day, and barely said anything but a good morning when he did see. Inuyasha's stellar athletic performance on Wednesday did nothing to ease the tension either. Now not only was Koga annoyed, he was clearly envious of his new competitor.

Now Kagome just needed to show him that while if he wanted to compete with Inuyasha in sports, there was no competition when it came to his girlfriend.

Once she finally got herself composed, she smiled up at the wolf-demon. "Hey." She said shyly.

He chuckled: "He-ey, what's up?"

"I miss you." She said as she gently took both of his hands in hers. "I feel like we haven't talked much this past week."

"We haven't." Koga replied, his voice suddenly hard. "You and Inuyasha had to catch up…whatever it was you needed to catch up on I suppose."

Kagome was horrified: "I haven't spoke to Inuyasha all week, I promise."

"I clearly remember you and him going off to speak to each other **alone** on Monday. And then, you didn't come back to lunch after that."

"Oh, that was nothing. Actually, he and I got into an argument that day, and we haven't spoken since."

"Over what?" Koga asked firmly.

Shit. Wrong move. "It doesn't matter." Kagome said quickly, trying to cover up her mistake before it got too noticeable. "The point is, we haven't spoken since Monday. I feel like just the whole 'getting back into the school mode' thing is what hindered us from getting back into 'us' mode."

"That, and the fact that Inuyasha showed up too, right?"

Okay, so Koga was not going to let that go. But to win big battles, sometimes you had to admit defeat in smaller ones. If she just agreed with him, she could avoid causing more damage than necessary.

"Fine," she agreed with a nod. "You're right about that: Inuyasha showing up did fluster me a bit. But it's nothing that serious. Besides, he has nothing to do with you and I."

"I know, but–"

"Exactly, no buts." Kagome let go of his hands so that she could now wrap her arms loosely around his waist. "So-o, I had this brilliant idea that you and I could go off campus for lunch. You know, put the senior privileges to use early?"

Koga looked skeptical, but Kagome could tell she was getting to him: "Where did you have in mind?"

"I thought we could go to that little buffet place you like so much." Kagome said sweetly. "School food sucks ass, so if we're going to have a little one-on-one time, I'd prefer if it was over food we could actually digest. We could talk without having to worry about other people interrupting us."

Koga regarded her for a second, but Kagome knew her face reflected sincerity. And that was because, in all honesty, she missed Koga. This whole week had been a minefield of trying to adapt to having Inuyasha in her school and in her face 24/7. And then there was the fact that she was still feeling somewhat guilty about her actions just a couple periods earlier. So now, she just wanted to get off campus, get away from it all – if only for hour – and get some food with her favorite guy.

Finally, Koga cracked that smile that Kagome adored: "Okay, you've got me. I was actually craving some ribs before you came. Should you drive, or should I?"

Kagome smiled as she released him. "I'll drive." She announced, jangling her keys in her left hand.

Koga took her free hand firmly in one of his, and the two of them walked together towards the school building – it was the only way to get back to the car park, since the back of the school was fenced off. Kagome pretended not to see Kikyo and her set of girlfriends clamoring around Inuyasha: Kikyo herself sitting in his lap, smiling that flawless smile of hers. Instead, she moved closer to Koga, giving his hand a gentle squeeze, knowing that Kikyo could smile at Inuyasha and sit in his lap all she wanted. None of that mattered while she was standing here with Koga.

It didn't bother her one bit.

Not even sort of.

Not even a little.

….Okay, maybe a little…

Kinda, sort of….

Or maybe just a little…

But definitely not a lot.

"Kags?"

Kagome jolted to her senses when she heard her name in Koga's voice. He was standing at the door to the school building, holding it open, presumably for her. Kagome wondered when exactly she'd let his hand go. And more importantly, when did she let his hand go and end up facing the very spectacle that she was just telling herself didn't bother her at all?

"You coming?" Koga said.

His voice wasn't as cheerful as it had been two seconds ago. Maybe he had noticed what she was staring at too. Fuck. "Of course I'm coming." She said confidently, as she sauntered over to where he was standing.

"You sure you don't need to take care of something over there before we leave." He made it sound like a statement, as he pointed over at Inuyasha and company.

Kagome glanced over there, just in time to catch Inuyasha's amber gaze. He was wearing that smug expression that was so arrogant, it made her want to run over there and strangle him till his eyes popped out.

But instead, she turned to face to Koga, reaching up to locker her arms around his neck, and smiled slowly. "Nope, nothing at all." She said softly before giving him a light kiss on his mouth.

It didn't take long for Koga to respond, and soon his arms were wrapped around her waist, pulling her closer to him. And when they finally broke apart, Kagome let the familiarity of Koga's touch linger on her mouth before taking his hand and going into the building with him. She didn't even look behind her as she did…

…although the thought had crossed her mind.

But she didn't, and that was what mattered.

With only forty minutes left of lunch, they decided to stop at a nearby burger joint to ensure returning to school on time. Koga settled for a burger and fries while Kagome ordered a salad. At first, she just watched amusedly as her boyfriend wolfed down the food, as if he hadn't eaten for days. But when her mind started to drift towards other persons with amusing eating habits, she quickly took a sip of her milkshake to clear her head.

"So." Koga said suddenly. "You wanted to talk right?"

Kagome was taken aback by his sudden remark, but she nodded. "I'd like to."

"Good, because I want to talk too."

Kagome tried to keep her expression steady, but somehow she felt that Koga wanted to talk about things she didn't want to discuss with him. At least not right now. "Fine, go ahead." She said anyway, deciding to herself that she could do this without fucking anything up. "I'm listening."

He nodded, but was suddenly inspired to take a handful of fries into his mouth and chew them at an awfully slow pace. And after that, he took a long sip of his soda, still stalling. Kagome gripped the edge of the table, trying to keep herself composed. But she wished he'd just spit it out and ask her: she already knew what the question was.

Finally, he spoke: "So how do you and Inuyasha know each other anyway?"

"From break." She answered simply, knowing she wasn't going to get away with that response.

Koga's eyes narrowed. "That's not what I meant."

It was worth a try. "What do you mean then?"

"I mean–" Another long sip of Coke. Alright, this was getting ridiculous. If he wanted to have this conversation, he could at least be brave and **have it**, for god's sake. "–well, you guys seem…close."

Ooo, nice word Koga: close. Kagome couldn't explain where her building irritation was coming from. But the shit was coming on strong. "I suppose you could say that." She said, still trying to keep her cool.

"Well, what happened over summer between you two?" he said, finally getting to the bulk of things.

She took a deep breath, then released it: "Break was sucking," Kagome said. So far no lies. "I was hanging out with this girl Mimi for the first two weeks, but her and I didn't have much in common. We kinda just hung out because while I was staying with my aunt, I became the only other girl on her block."

Koga nodded, his expression open and inviting. Kagome smiled inwardly. She was doing well so far. But the tricky part was coming up, so she'd have to tread carefully: "Anyway, her and I went to this party together. And I didn't really want to be there: I was kinda just going to appease her. But then I realized what an awful time I was having, and that it wasn't worth appeasing her. But she had drove, so I had no way home, unless I was going to walk."

She paused. Careful now…."That's when I ran into Inuyasha. I was sitting on the porch, frowning at the fact that I was still stuck here, when he showed up. He introduced himself, and we got to talking, long enough for him to realize I was stranded. He offered to take me home, and I accepted."

"Then what?"

"Then…I guess we realize we had a lot in common. At least, more in common than Mimi and I. So we just started hanging out more afterwards. The end."

"The end?"

"Yup, the end." Kagome said confidently, as if trying to convince herself of the fact as well.

Koga didn't seem too moved: "So why was he flirting with you the other day?"

Kagome choked on her spit at the sound of that, but quickly tried to cover it up with a scoff. "I doubt he was." She said quietly.

"I **know** he was. I was there at the lunch table Kags."

"Well haven't you noticed that he flirts with everything with legs and a vagina? He was just being a prick is all. It was harmless." She replied coolly.

"Yeah, but it's not exactly the same if you knew him before. How am I supposed to know he wasn't flirting with you while you guys were off in California? How am I supposed to know that nothing else happened besides 'harmless flirting', as you put it?"

Kagome felt something tighten in her chest, but she ignored it: "Nothing happened in California. There was some harmless flirting, but nothing happened. And you're supposed to know that because you're supposed to trust me."

Koga didn't respond immediately, giving Kagome the vibe that he wasn't trusting her too much right now. Admit to something small: that's what she'd do. "We kissed." She blurted out.

His eyes blazed: "What?" he said, his voice immediately thick with anger. "What do you mean you guys kissed?"

"It was completely by accident. We had gone out to the movies and dinner, and it was feeling a lot like a date–" Koga looked like he was about to explode again after that last word, so Kagome quickly hurried in with the rest of her story to knock him off. "–so when he walked me to my door, he thought…well I can see why he thought it would be okay to kiss me. So we kissed, but then I pulled apart from him and told him that I had a boyfriend – you – back home, and that I loved him – you – very much."

Koga simmered down at that: "Oh."

"Yeah. So we kissed once, but that's all. After I set Inu straight, we just went back to the way we had been before: just friends."

"Inu?" His voice took on that dangerous quality again.

"Inuyasha, I meant."

Koga sat back in his chair, taking another long drink from his soda, his expression contemplative. Kagome leaned back in her chair as well, trying to regulate her heart rate. She had gotten over the hard part. She was almost in the clear now.

"One more thing." Koga said after a moment.

"Shoot."

"Did you like him? As in, did you feel anything for him at all?"

Kagome sighed. "I did." She said softly, still using the 'admitting to something small' trick. "A minor crush. I couldn't help it. I missed you, and he was nice and treated me just like you did–" Okay, that was a lie. Koga didn't treat her half as well as Inuyasha did. "–so I liked him. But it was minor. Right after he kissed me, I realized he wasn't you, and I told him I couldn't do this: that I couldn't give him what he wanted from me. He said that he figured a pretty girl like me would have a boyfriend anyway."

Koga smiled smugly. "Yeah. And that's me."

Kagome smiled, even though she didn't like the arrogance in his statement. "You're right, that is you."

He held his smile for a few more seconds, before his expression sobered. "I'm sorry Kagome." He murmured.

Kagome was puzzled: "What do you mean? Sorry about what?"

"Sorry for getting so angry over your relationship with Inuyasha. I should have known it wasn't that serious."

Kagome gulped, and mentally hoped Koga would stop right there.

He didn't: "I mean, I guess I was just worried because of circumstances, you know? We weren't exactly at our very best with each other when you left. And then you didn't call, and barely wrote. And then, in waltz this guy who – considering all the girls flocking to him – is a good-looking guy, who claimed to know you over summer. And every time he spoke to you, it was almost like he was…." Koga stopped. "That doesn't matter. The point is, nothing happened between you two, and I should have known that." He chuckled a bit. "I can't believe I thought our little tiff was enough to make you cheat on me."

Kagome was with him right up until that last statement. Every word before that succeeded in making her feel, not like an ordinary slut, but a lying slut, who works in conniving ways to make her boyfriend feel bad when **she** was the one who did wrong. But then he called their very serious argument 'a little tiff' and all the guilt that had been building up in her chest, flushed itself out and was replaced with anger.

"That wasn't a little tiff Koga." She said tightly. "You hurt me."

Koga caught onto her tone, and immediately started backtracking: "I didn't mean it like that babe. I know I hurt you, and it hurts me even more to know that I hurt you. That's why I was so worried when you left at the time you did. I thought you were going to leave me altogether."

She was, but decided against it. "No," was all she said in response.

Koga sighed, then took her hand across the table, giving it a soft squeeze. "Come on, let's get going. We don't wanna be late."

"I guess." She said emptily as she stood up.

"Kags, please, I didn't mean it like that." Koga pleaded. He stood up and moved closer to her, putting his arms around her frame. "I didn't mean to say that what happened before break was insignificant. It wasn't: but I don't want to go back there again. You said you were willing to try and move on. I want that for us."

She looked up at his bright blue eyes, but the comfort she normally found there didn't greet her this time. "I know Koga, I know." She said quietly.

"I love you."

She hesitated: "I love you too."

He kissed her forehead, before leading her out, leaving the money for the bill on the table. Kagome allowed herself to be pulled, but her thoughts was no longer on her boyfriend, and trying to get on his good side.

They were now concerning a certain golden-eyed hanyou….

* * *

**Author's Note: yo guys...so srry for not updating sooner. trying to get back into the habit of skl, ya know? n yeah...i must admit, it shalln't be easy to update alot anymore...but i promise to try my hardest!!**

**in the mean time, read and review (thanks!)**

**see you in the next chapter:**

**Brin.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: while the idea might be mine, the characters are not. it happens to the best of us.

* * *

**

Chapter Six 

Kagome wasn't sure what had inspired her to come here, but by the time she started questioning her actions, it was too late to turn back now. After school, turning down Sango's trip to the ice cream parlor for a Coca-Cola float, she decided on going home instead. She had only been lying on her bed for ten minutes when suddenly, she was looking up the new school directory on the school's website. After getting the necessary data, she called a cab and took it the designated location. Now she was standing outside the front door, with her hand levitating by the buzzer. Turning back now would have just been a waste of time and twelve dollars and missing a Coke float. So she composed herself and pressed the doorbell.

Hearing it ring hollowly in the house made her feel that maybe she should have taken down the number listed under the address, just in case. But soon she heard soft noises coming from upstairs, giving her the impression that someone was indeed home. She rang the doorbell again, this time earning herself a response of 'coming!' Alright, impression confirmed: he **was** home.

Then she heard the giggle. The unmistakable giggle of an infatuated female. That giggle that came right after a girl's crush makes a move on them. Kagome knew the giggle well: she had put it to overuse over the summer. But that wasn't what was really making her skin crawl. It was the person from whom the giggle was coming from. That giggle was unmistakable for more reasons than one.

As she heard the loud thumping of persons – yes, more than one – coming down the stairs, she almost wished she had turned around before. Suddenly, she didn't have the balls to handle this at all.

Then the door opened: too damn late.

Kagome wished her eyes had landed on Inuyasha first. He was looking more than delicious in just a pair of slim fitting jeans, low slung so that his deep sex lines were being shown to all who wished to see. She wished she had caught the way the sun was giving his complexion a healthy glow, the way his face broke out into a smile – a genuine smile – at the sight of her.

Instead, her eyes went straight to the smaller form next to him. Dressed scantily in a spaghetti strap tank and an impossibly short skirt, hair messy and face aglow, Kagome's eyes had to land on the giggler: Kikyo Hitomi.

Her first thought came flying out of her mouth: "What the fuck are you doing here?"

Kikyo scoffed and folded her arms across her chest. It was then Kagome noticed Kikyo wasn't currently wearing a bra. And the top offered no cami cover-up. "I could ask you the same question." Kikyo hissed.

"I'm actually quite curious." Inuyasha said. But his tone was genuine, not smug.

Kagome looked at him, and now seeing his appearance, was rendered temporarily speechless. But it wasn't even because he looked gorgeous – that hadn't even registered yet. It was the fact that he was barely dressed, while Kikyo was in a mess, while the two of them had clearly been here alone. Her heart thudded painfully in her chest, keeping her speechlessness intact. What the hell was she supposed to say anyway? She didn't even know **why** she had come here in the first place? Though she was slowly realizing what a mistake this was….

"Well?" Kikyo said, her voice demanding.

Kagome swallowed hard, not sure why her eyes were beginning to sting. But she wasn't about to stick around and wait for the repercussions of that: "I have to go."

"Hang on Kagome." Inuyasha said quickly. "Don't leave yet."

"Sorry, I don't even know why I came." She was murmuring mostly to herself. "Sorry to…" she had to swallow again. "Interrupt."

"Just wait, please Kags."

Every fiber in her body wanted her to leave, but then she realized that she had no way of getting home immediately anyway. The walk was too long, and she'd still have to wait here until a cab came anyway. But right as she was about to say again – as if rendered on repeat due to shock – that she had to leave, Inuyasha turned to Kikyo, his expression serious.

"It's time for you to go." He said firmly.

Kikyo's jaw dropped. "What?"

But he wasn't even looking at her anymore, his eyes tender as they rested on Kagome: "Come inside Kags. Mom will be happy to see you."

The tightening in her chest loosened a bit, though not altogether. However, Moms being present did make things a little better. She nodded solemnly before Inuyasha stepped aside, letting her enter.

The house was small and cozy. Seeing some of the furniture from the California house brought back a couple of memories, but Kagome tried not to linger on them too long. Part of her was still telling her to get out of here while she had the chance.

"You can't be serious." Kikyo said in a hiss.

"I **am** serious." Inuyasha said darkly.

"But Inu–"

"I'll call you, alright?"

Kikyo looked unconvinced. Kagome had to avert her eyes when she saw Inuyasha taking a step closer to her. She started walking towards the dining room, but wasn't fast enough as the soft sounds of kissing filled her ears. Her chest squeezed painfully again.

But by the time she reached the kitchen – she had just kept walking straight, without any real sense of direction – seeing Inuyasha's mother at the kitchen sink made her smile. The youthful woman was already rushing over to greet her before Kagome had even taken two steps into the actual room.

"Kagome honey!" she squealed. "I am so pleased to see you again."

"The feeling is mutual Mrs. Takashi."

Inuyasha's mother frowned. "I told you darling. Call me Aunt Iz."

Kagome blushed. She loved Inuyasha's mom – oops, Aunt Iz. She had Inuyasha young: nineteen – Sesshomaru was born from a different woman, though she treated him like her own son anyway. And even though she was approaching forty, she still looked like she was in her twenties, and acted as if she was the same age as Kagome. She definitely fell under the category of "cool mom".

"Sorry, Aunt Iz." Kagome said softly.

"No worries Kagome. Now how are you sweetie? I thought I'd see you here sooner considering the fact that you and Inu go to the same school."

"Oh. Well, we just didn't plan anything in particular yet." Kagome lied.

Izayoi leaned in closer: "Do you know that girl with him now? Kikyo I think her name is."

Kagome frowned slightly. "I know her."

To her surprise, Aunt Iz frowned a bit as well: "I don't quite like that girl. I would never choose my baby Inu's or Sesshomaru's friends. But…." She gave a knowing look before sighing. "Well dear, it's nice to see you. I hope you stay long enough for dinner."

Yikes! "Uh…I don't know. I might not be able to…."

"Wishful thinking is all." Aunt Iz said with a wink before turning to exit the kitchen.

"Hey."

Inuyasha's mother reached the doorway just as Inuyasha appeared in it. "Why didn't you bring Kagome over early honey?" she asked her son.

Inuyasha glanced at Kagome: "Didn't get a chance."

"Well make sure I get to see her more often." Aunt Iz said before walking away.

Inuyasha waited until he heard his mother get off the staircase before speaking: "What are you doing here?" His voice wasn't accusing.

Unfortunately, this was the time Kagome noticed Inuyasha's attire – or lack of it – for what it was. She had blocked out all sound every since he leaned against the doorway: her eyes were immediately glued to his defined abdomen, longing to run her fingertips over every ridge. Now suddenly hearing his voice ringing in her ears, sounding about as sexy as warm honey, sent chills down her spine.

"What?" she said, sounding breathless.

He smiled a bit: "I asked what's wrong: why are you here?"

"Oh, I…." She looked up at him, only to find the intensity of those golden eyes too much for her right now. She glanced back down…only to realize she was staring at his stomach again. Shit. "I wanted to talk to you." She murmured out, now checking out her shoes.

"Oh?" His voice sounded concerned. "What about?"

She glanced up. "Can we sit first?"

Inuyasha's smile grew. "One of _those_ talks huh."

Against her will, Kagome blushed. "No."

"Come upstairs with me then."

Her face went redder. "What?!" she said loudly in surprise.

He just chuckled. "Relax Kags. We always talked in my room. So come on."

A small part of her was saying that now would be a good time to turn around, or say no, or do something besides letting Inuyasha take her hang softly in his and pull her towards the staircase. But by the time they were in front of the bedroom door, she figured she was too late.

Kagome knew that the room wouldn't look like the one over the summer – since, duh, they were two different houses – but even with the sky blue walls instead of fire engine red and being able to see the floor, the room still held the same comfort she had left over break. All of Inuyasha's favorite bands were posted all over the walls, and the bed was still unmade – something that would probably never change. The red bean bag they had cuddled in over summer was pushed in the corner of the room.

Then her eye caught something that hadn't been in the old room. A bulletin board posted above his desk, covered in a couple sheets of papers and photos. Stepping closer to see better, she saw that a cluster of pictures in the top left corner were pictures of her and Inuyasha. Kagome's heart warmed as her eyes landed on the slide when she and Inuyasha used the picture machine in the carnival, the memory freshening itself immediately.

"Good times huh."

Kagome turned at the sound of Inuyasha's voice. He shoved his hands in his pockets, still shirtless. "You wanted to talk?" he reminded her.

Kagome nodded, but didn't know what she wanted to say just yet. She didn't come over here with a game plan, she came on a whim. She had thought the house would be empty, and she could get away with her temporary lapse of better judgment. But now she was in Inuyasha's room, with a shirtless Inuyasha, while the memories of their perfect summer began coming back to mind….

"I want to talk." Inuyasha said quietly, taking a step towards her. "I miss you."

"Inuyasha, I–"

"Don't say anything yet Kagome." His voice dropped another octave as he came closer. Soon his hands were holding hers. "Just…shhh."

And then Kagome found herself silenced, caught up in Inuyasha's kiss. His mouth was warm and welcoming, and when his tongue brushed hers, she shivered with delight. She wanted to touch him, but now Inuyasha was pushing her hands firmly into the desk behind her, as if thinking her motions would be to push him away. So she lifted her chest, allowed it to be pressed gently against his. She heard the quiet growl in his throat as he moved his whole body closer to her, squeezing her hands hard, dipping his tongue further into her mouth. She met it again with her own, willing to take whatever he wanted to give….

…that is until, a flash of Kikyo's under dressed self plagued her mind, completely breaking her haze, and her flow.

They broke apart at Kagome's gasp. "What? What is it?" Inuyasha asked. His voice had gotten extremely husky – lustful.

"I can't." Kagome whispered, surprised at the tone of her own voice: it matched Inuyasha's perfectly.

"No one has to know." Inuyasha told her. "Be with your boyfriend if you want. That's all you. But you want this. You wouldn't have come all the way here if you didn't."

"That's not true."

"That **is** true." Inuyasha said forcefully. He was angry now, even though his voice was still drenched with passion. "You know it's true so quite fucking around."

"You're the one fucking around." Kagome retorted babyishly. But still, she had a point with this one: "What was Kikyo doing here? Are you guys dating now or something?"

"Where the fuck did you get that from?"

"Oh I think I picked it up from the fact that both of you were underdressed and together." That and Kagome could smell that bitch all over the room. She knew that awful perfume a little too well: her scent of seduction she calls it.

"Nothing happened. My mother is here for fuck's sake."

"But would something **have** happened if your mother **wasn't** here?" Kagome pulled her hands from his grasp, which had loosened since they started arguing, and pushed him away from her. "God Inuyasha, you know how I feel about her."

"**God** Kagome." Inuyasha said, mocking her tone. "You know how I felt about **you** and **you** didn't tell me that you were fucking around with some…fucked up wolf-demon."

"I told you I didn't sleep with Koga!" Kagome hissed. "You know you were my…" Kagome stopped. "You know what, fuck it, whatever. You don't have to believe me."

"Good, cause I don't."

"Well I don't believe you either when you said nothing happened between you and Kikyo!" she exclaimed. "That little slut will fuck anything that walks with a dick. I can smell her all over your clothes, or lack thereof."

"My **mother's** here for fuck's sake!" he yelled back.

"That's didn't stop us did it!"

A long silence followed that statement. Kagome was breathing heavily now, in all her anger. But soon her mind caught up with her mouth, and she realized what she had just said. Damn, she had to take it there. She was about to tell him to forget her last statement, and that she was leaving before this got anymore out of control, when Inuyasha sighed.

"You were different." He said, his voice soft. "I told you that you were different."

The tenderness of Inuyasha's voice made her anger disappear. He turned his back to her, arms folded, yet shoulders slumped. Kagome, unable to stop herself, cross the room and placed her palms flat on his back. She let her fingertips trace the tiny angel wings tattoo on his left shoulder blade, remembering sitting next to him as he got it done.

"Stop." Inuyasha said. "Don't touch me."

Kagome was surprised, and pulled her hands back immediately. He turned to face her, his expression serious: "You can't have it both ways Kagome. It's not fair to me. I'm trying to respect the fact that you wanna be with your boyfriend. But you can't come onto me, then push me away if I respond. That's not fair. You know how I feel about you, and you're fucking with those feelings."

She opened her mouth to speak, but she still didn't know what to say. She knew that she wanted to be with Koga, but things didn't feel the same way with him as they did with Inuyasha. But it was her hormones making her want Inuyasha the way she did. Their whole summer was two months of raging hormones.

"You have to choose." He said to her. "Let's be friends, or let's not. But I don't want to play in the middle. It's just not fair."

She sighed, before looking straight into those beautiful pools of amber. "I can't throw away what I have with Koga over something as uncertain as you Inuyasha."

"Uncertain." He echoed hollowly.

"I know Koga loves me. We've been together for a long time now. I love him. You…we…we had a fun summer, but it was rushed. We did things without completely thinking them through. You have to think about it from that point of view."

Inuyasha looked like he was about to say something, but stopped. Then after a moment he said: "That's understandable."

"I don't want us to not be close anymore Inuyasha. I felt like the only way I could get close to you is if I came onto you or something."

God, Kagome knew that was a lie as soon as she said it, but it was too late to take it back: Inuyasha was already replying. "You know it could never be like that Kagome. You should know you can call me up just to hang out whenever you want to. You're number one in my books, always."

Kagome smiled at that. "Friends then?"

Inuyasha returned the gesture. "Friends then."

They hugged, and Kagome found herself getting passed the eau de Kikyo to inhaling the musky scent of Inuyasha's scent. She nuzzled her nose in his chest, enjoying the embrace. And when she finally released him, he placed a light kiss on her forehead.

"This will be okay." She said quietly.

"It will be okay." He agreed.

Kagome hadn't realized she had spoken aloud until she heard Inuyasha's response. But regardless, she knew things would turn out fine.

Then why was she still feeling all this uncertainty in her chest?

* * *

**Author's Note:: dont worry guys, no matter how slow the updates are, I promise they are coming. im actually in the process of finishing the next one and (hopefully) I'll be able to post it later on tonight. until then, I hope you enjoyed this one.**

**read and review (thanks)**

**see you in the next chapter.**

**Brin.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Note: Okay guys, I know -- I suck. Because I havent written a thing for this story in maybe almost a year. and for that I apologize to my readers. I still received alot of your reviews, but I just couldn't find the time to write anything (school was pretty rough on me this year). But now that it's summer time, I decided I should give this story a second chance, and not totally give up on it. So i started working on this chapter, and I'll try to work on some more. Like I said, due to summer, it should be easier, but I can't make any promises.**

**So to anyone still reading this, here you go. To all the new readers...here you go.**

**Disclaimer: nothing but the idea is mine.**

* * *

Kagome caught herself people watching as she stood alone at the snack table, a cup of soda in her hand. There were a couple of people she recognized from school, and a couple she didn't, gyrating to the hip-hop music pouring out of the stereo. Amongst the dancers, she spotted Sango and Miroku getting their groove on as well: probably the only time Miroku could touch Sango indecently without her feeling the need to slap him back into place. Her eyes continued to drift around the room, and caught sight of what was usual at any teenage party: couples were hooking up on the staircase, guys acting like assholes as they tried to get wasted in the kitchen, girls hanging out in clusters, checking out the assholes as they tried to get wasted in the kitchen.

She caught a couple of the male drinkers and non-drinkers trying to catch her wandering gaze, giving her a lustful look. Not that she could blame any of them. Not wanting to sound conceited, she knew she looked good tonight. For one she had on her favorite pair of white denim capris, which always made her feel on top. Along with that she had thrown on a tight black tank top and a series of pearls that hung at different lengths around her neck, accenting her bust. Then there were the extremely cute black heels she stole from Sago's closet the night before. She had her dark hair pulled back from her face, and brushed her bangs to the side. And even though she decided to go light on the makeup - just some black eyeliner and a nude gloss - she knew she looked good.

Which was good. Because she wanted to look good tonight. All she wanted to do tonight was have fun. Hence the main reason she came without Koga. Koga had asked her to go along with him to this other party his friend was having, but it sounded way too vague for her to go. Especially when most of her friends would be here. Whenever she went to one of Koga's friends parties with him, it ended up that she could only spend the entire night with Koga, considering she didn't know anybody else, and he wouldn't give her a chance to get to know anybody else. Needless to say, Koga wasn't impressed with her not wanting to go with him, and they got into an argument over it. Not that the arguing was a total surprise either: they always managed to do that nowadays. In the end, Kagome just hung up the phone and started getting ready to come here. She didn't want to be bothered with Koga, and whatever his current issue was. She just wanted to have fun tonight.

She absently twirled the liquid in her cup, still sweeping the room for somewhere to start. Should she shake her stuff with the rest of the gyrators? Maybe join the boys in a drinking contest? Cozy up to one of the female cliques and take part in their mindless gossip? The choices were so...limited.

Especially since what she really wanted to do was see Inuyasha. But, he was nowhere to be found. Which was weird, considering it was his party. That of course was part of the reason why Koga didn't want her to go. At least not without him there.

Not that he had much to worry about. Everyone knew about Inuyasha's extremely serious relationship with Yuna Kenshin, a girl who went to a different school from theirs. Kikyo made a huge stink about him "leading her on" just to "let her down" and how he was "con artist" and a couple other things. Of course, Kagome knew about his budding relationship with Yuna: ever since their declaration of friendship six weeks ago, they began talking more. In fact, they were actually falling back into what they were over the summer, minus the intimacy. Kagome knew when Inuyasha was going to ask her out, the day he did, and the fact that they had been going out for a month and two days now.

Kagome had already spotted Yuna at the party. Right now she was sitting on the couch with a couch of girls - her friends from school, Kagome assumed. She looked nice too, wearing a red halter-top dress. She had recently cut her long auburn hair to her chin and dyed it blonde. Drastic as the change was, it certainly did make those sky blue eyes of hers sparkle more.

But where in the hell was Inuyasha? He had been talking about this party for the past two weeks. Kagome had expected him to be parading around the room, trying to hype up the event even more. But she had been here for almost two hours now and there was still no sign of him. Kagome was tempted to ask Yuna where he was, but she didn't seem to be worrying about that at all. And it might look suspicious if Kagome was. Apparently, wherever Inuyasha was, it was necessary for him to be there.

Not that that made his absence better, but still.

"Hey."

Kagome turned in the direction of the greeting and found a less than attractive guy next to her. His eyes were trained on her necklaces, or at least, Kagome could pretend they were. She knew better though.

Kagome rolled her eyes. "Hello." she said in a bored tone.

"You're looking pretty hot tonight." he said, still gaping at her necklaces. "I don't know if anyone else has told you that yet, but if not, I'm glad to be the first."

Kagome could tell that this was one of Inuyasha's out-of-school friends, or else he would have known she was very much involved. "Thanks." she replied blandly. "I do what I can."

"You wanna dance?"

"Actually, I need to head to the ladies' room. You understand, don't you sweetie?" Kagome told him in an extra sugary tone.

"Yeah, I got you." he said with a nod. "I'll just wait right here for you, for when you get back."

"Fabulous." She said as she walked off towards the staircase. She found herself shaking her head as she went up. God that guy was hopeless. She could have been butt ugly for all he knew, but he was way too busy trying to guess her cup size to care. Boys sometimes.

Once she got to the top of the staircase, instead of heading towards the bathroom, she walked in the direction of Inuyasha's bedroom. She didn't need to go to the bathroom anyway, and needed to kill some time.

The door was open, and the only source of light seemed to be the lamp on Inuyasha's desk. At first, Kagome wondered if one of the staircase couples had found their way up here, and she was about to walk in on a hookup. The glow of the lamp was definitely at a "mood" light setting. But then she figured that the couple would have been clever enough to lock the door: at least she would.

She pushed the door open all the way, and her eyes immediately went to the bed. Fortunately there wasn't a sordid love affair going on under the sheets. What she did see surprised her anyway.

"Inuyasha?"

He was lying on his stomach, the sheet pulled up to his chin. His head was turned away from her, but he shifted at the sound of his name. It took him a moment to turn to face her. "Kagome?" his voice was gravelly from sleep.

"Inuyasha? What are you doing? Your party is going on downstairs, and you're up here asleep."  
"Yeah, I know." Now he was sitting up in the bed, stretching his arms over his head. As he did, the sheet slipped down to his waist, revealing his shirtless body.

Kagome's eyes momentarily left his face to take in the beautiful sculpture that was his stomach. Then once his stretch was complete, she lifted her gaze to meet his again. "Well, any particular reason why the party is downstairs and you're up here?" she asked.

"I wasn't feeling well earlier today." Inuyasha explained. "I guess it was an hour stomach bug, cause I feel better now. But a couple of hours ago, I was feeling pretty fucked up. So Yuna told me to lie down, sleep it off. She told me to cancel the party, but I thought I had put too much effort into it to cancel so late in the game. So I told her that I would rest up and probably come down a bit later." He gave her a curious expression. "Why are you up here?"

Kagome shrugged. "Ditching some loser who was trying to hit on me."

"Hey be careful, that might be one of my friends."

"I hope not." Kagome said with displeasure. "He was gross."

Inuyasha chuckled. "Well, why didn't Koga wave him off?"

Kagome hesitated for a moment. "Well, he's not here with me." she said slowly.

He rose an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"Yeah," She paused. "He...uh, he decided to go to another party. And I decided to go to this one."

"Good choice I'd say." Inuyasha said with a wink.

"I guess." Kagome said with a shrug.

Inuyasha gave her a long look. "Something up Kagome? You seem a bit off."

She looked over at him, his golden eyes concerned. When he patted the edge of the bed, she willingly took a seat. "Koga and I had a fight." she said. "Another fight."

"Sorry to hear that Kags."

"Yeah." She sighed. "It's just...it was so stupid why it happened. He was yelling at me because I didn't want to go to a party with him. But I don't know any of his friends you know? So why would I go with him? But he didn't want me to come here by myself, as if I need to be watched or some shit like that."

Inuyasha shook his head. "Why do you put up with it then Kags? I mean, he's–"

Kagome tried to fill in the blank: "A jerk? An asshole? A fucking bastard?"

"Well...yeah."

Kagome sighed again. "I don't know." She scooted closer to Inuyasha so that she could lay her head on his chest. "I love him I guess."

"You guess?"

Kagome moved closer to Inuyasha, almost climbing into his lap. She was so confused about it all. She was definitely tired of Koga, and was going to break up with him earlier this year. But now she just found herself afraid. Afraid to leave him, afraid of what might happen if she did. Koga was a jerk most of the time, but he gave her a sense of security and stability. And that was something she was accustomed to.

"Kagome that's no reason to stay with someone."

She glanced up at him: "What?"

"Because he makes you feel secure?"

Kagome wasn't even aware that she had spoken out loud, but then she shrugged: "Everyone likes to feel secure, don't they? To know that someone loves them?"

"I guess."

Kagome climbed on the bed completely so she could turn to face him, lifting her head from his chest. "Doesn't Yuna make you feel secure?"

Inuyasha shrugged. "Yeah I guess. But that's not why I'm with her. I'm with her because..."

It was the longest pause, and Kagome waited for an answer. But when it seemed that none was coming, she tried to answer for him: "Because you love her." she said quietly.

And as soon as she said that, there was a painful stab in her chest. Kikyo wasn't the only one who had taken Inuyasha's new relationship hard. and worse she had to sit and listen while Inuyasha bragged about just how awesome Yuna was. But on the inside, it was way too much to bear. Not that that was fair: she had told Inuyasha that they were going to be just friends. She couldn't expect him to sit around, lovesick for the rest of the year. But she couldn't ignore the part of her that hoped he would.

"Kagome."

Inuyasha's low voice broke her thoughts. "Yes, Inuyasha?"

"You...you shouldn't be with Koga because you're looking for security." He looked up at her, his amber eyes reflecting sincerity. "If you want security you have it me. If you want love, you have that in me. I'll always be there for you, and I'm always going to love you."

She felt her heart swelling with emotion. "Inuyasha..." she said breathlessly.

"I just thought you should know that." He said quickly, then he added. "Anyway, I better put on some clothes and head downstairs before the party ends, right?"

He gave her a half-smile, but she didn't smile back. Instead, she crawled over to him and lightly pressed her lips against his. She felt his initial surprise, and then the smooth transition into him kissing her back. Before she could regret the action, and without breaking the kiss, she put her hands on his shoulders and gently pushed him back on the bed.

* * *

**I hope this was okay for a welcome back chapter. i'll try to post again as soon as possible.**

**Brin**


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: i dont own Inuyasha**

* * *

Kagome couldn't hold back the moan that escaped her lips. Inuyasha's mouth and long left hers and slipped down to her neck. The soft nibbling against her neck accompanied with the feel of his tongue dancing over her flesh sent shivers all over her body. She longed to drag her fingers against his back, but he was holding them tightly above her head. Her sexual frustration was building with every passing second, and his keeping her immobile was having it build at an incredibly rate.

"Inuyasha." She said in a groan. "Take my top off."

Inuyasha complied immediately, leaning up only enough to remove the garment and her pearl necklaces. Kagome smiled to herself as she saw Inuyasha's lustful eyes take in her lacy red bra.

"I love red." He murmured hoarsely.

"I know you do." She replied seductively.

He stared at her a moment longer, before slowly lower himself. His lips landed on the corner of her mouth, before travelling downwards again: this time, passed her neck. He nibbled playfully at her collarbone. But just as she released soft giggles of pleasure, his mouth went down a couple more centimeters.

Now that his lips rested on the flesh of her breast, she felt his tongue trace circles over her skin, pulling in small sections for kisses. Then, not bothering to unhook the strapless bra, he grabbed the garment and pushed it up to her shoulders. Kagome gasped when she felt him take her nipple into his warm mouth. She closed her eyes to fully absorb the feeling of his tongue dancing over her skin. Another moan left her throat as he began sucking. With her now free hands, she dug her fingers into his hair, getting them knotted in his beautiful silver mane. As he sucked on her right nipple, his hand caressed her left. She couldn't stop her breathing from becoming heavy, her lust reaching its highest level. In fact, the insistent flicking of his tongue was beginning to drive her 

insane. Not to mention, the feel of his member throbbing against her inner thigh. She knew exactly what he wanted, and she wanted it too.

"Tell me you want me." She whispered.

He reached for her mouth again, giving her a long passionate kiss. "I want you." He said gruffly. "So badly."

"Take my pants off." Kagome demanded.

"You sure." He asked in a gruff voice.

He sounded as if he was going to do it sooner or later, but Kagome wanted sooner: "Yes."

He was going for them too – he rose up again, and his fingers went for the button and zipper – but then he stopped. Kagome looked at him with a frown. "Why'd you stop?" she asked him, her voice thick with desire.

He still wasn't moving. His expression had become serious, and his ears were twitching. At least, Kagome would have noticed these things if she wasn't so blinded by her desire for him. But at this point, all she could notice was the fact that she was still wearing her clothes. "Inuyasha."

"Shut up for a second Kagome." He whispered angrily.

His voice wasn't carrying that hint of lust anymore. Kagome was just about to ask him what was wrong when his eyes widened. "Fuck."

"What?"

"Yuna."

Now Kagome's eyes widened: "Fuck!"

"Shut up." He hissed. "Grab your shirt and go into the closet. Go."



He didn't have to tell Kagome again. This was a situation she would rather not have to deal with. She picked up her shirt quickly and scurried into the closet, closing it behind her. In the next moment, there was a knock on the door.

"Come in." Inuyasha said.

Kagome heard Yuna's voice next. "Hey Yash."

"Hey sweetie," he replied. "What's up?"

"Nothing. Just coming to check on you. You missed the whole party."

Kagome checked her watch, surprised at how much time had passed. She didn't think she was up here for that long. She wondered what Sango had thought: Sango and Miroku had been her ride over here. But Kagome was pretty sure that the both of them had left by now. Maybe she'd take a taxi home.

"How are you feeling?" Yuna was saying.

"Better. How was the party?"

"It was good, babe. A total success. I'm sorry you missed it all."

"That's okay. I'll just have another, right?"

There was silence for a moment, and then the sound of kissing filled the room. Kagome wished she could mute it, especially since she couldn't quite shake the painful squeeze in her chest as the kissing continued.

"I have to head home." Yuna said in a whisper.

"Alright. Call me tomorrow."

"No problem." More kissing noises, then: "I love you."

"Love you."



Another painful squeeze, and this time Kagome felt tears welling in her eyes. She heard Yuna's footsteps leaving the room, and the shutting of the door. But even though the coast was clear, Kagome couldn't bring herself to leave. She felt so embarrassed, so humiliated with herself. How did she manage to find herself making out with Inuyasha in his bedroom? She knew very well that he had a girlfriend: one who happened to be downstairs the whole time, and still, she let this happen. And then there was the fact that they were about to…she was going to let him….

She shook her head and furiously rubbed the corner of her eyes, not wanting to cry. It wasn't just her. He played a role in this just as much as she did. He could have told her to leave. He could have told her to stop. And he didn't. She didn't have to take all the blame.

"Get out of there Kagome."

It took her a minute – she wanted to make sure she was completely composed – but then she opened the door and stepped out. Inuyasha was sitting on his bed, arms folded across his chest. He wasn't looking at her, keeping his eyes trained on the floor.

"You should leave."

She nodded, and started heading towards the door. But she hesitated before she could open the door. "Inuyasha?"

"Just leave Kagome."

She turned back to face him, a frown on her face. "Are you suddenly not going to talk to me?" He said nothing, and his eyes were still downcast. "Are you not even going to look at me?"

"I must admit, I do think that's for the best."

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about the fact that you came up here and completely came onto me." He said. "And you know I have a girlfriend–"



"**I **came onto **you**?"

"You kissed me."

"You kissed back!" Kagome cried, her voice raised. "So don't blame this all on me Inuyasha. You could have told me to stop. You could have said you had a girlfriend. But you just laid there and took it. So please don't try to pin all the guilt on me or anything like that. Cause I'm not having it."

"And do you really think that I would have told you 'no'?" Inuyasha replied in a loud tone as well. "Honestly Kagome, did you not hear a word I said? I said I **love** you. I'm always going to love you. I couldn't stop loving you if I tried."

Kagome was caught off guard for a second. "You said you loved Yuna."

Inuyasha shook his head. "**You** said that. I didn't say anything. And I didn't say anything because I didn't want to lie to you. And I didn't resist you because I can't resist you. Because even though it's easy for you to tell me that we're going to be friends, it's not as easy for me. I'm dating Yuna to forget about you, not because I love her. You're the only one I love." He stopped and shook his head. "Not that it matters."

Kagome could only stare at him. Inuyasha definitely wasn't always this expressive. For him to say all of that had have taken a lot of inner bravery. And almost every word made her heart skip. "Inuyasha, I–"

"No I actually don't want you to say anything." Inuyasha said, and his expression was hard. "Don't say anything because it doesn't matter."

"It does–"

"No it **doesn't**. It doesn't matter at all. Because no matter what happens Kagome, no matter how much I tell you I love you, you're just going to tell me that the summer is over. I don't want to 

hook up with you on the sly. I want to be with you. I want to hold you and kiss you and do whatever I want to do without having to sneak. I don't want to have you hiding in the closet because someone is coming up the stairs. But I also don't want you to kiss me today and run back to Koga tomorrow. I don't know what it is about you and that fucking wolf, but considering the fact that you haven't left him yet, there must be something about him that keeps you coming back."

"I haven't left him because I don't want to be alone." Kagome said quietly.

"And like I said before, that's a fucked up reason to be with someone. You're so much better than that Kagome. You're so much better than him. But if you honestly can't see that on your own, you're not even ready to be with me." He shook his head and finally looked up at her. "You're hardly the same Kagome I remember over the summer, if you are her. I miss her. She was take charge. She did what she wanted to do, and not what was expected of her. She definitely didn't let other things control her. But now, I just don't know what happened. It makes me wish I hadn't come back and found all this out. Not just because of this whole Koga thing, but just because of who you are here."

Kagome sniffed, and suddenly realized tears were sliding down her cheeks. She wiped them away: "I am the same person."

"You aren't the same person." Inuyasha said. He glanced away from her towards his desk. She turned to follow his gaze, and guessed he was looking at the pictures of them posted on his bulletin board.

She glanced back at him, forcing herself not to start crying again. "Inuyasha."

"Let me grab a shirt, and then I'll take you home." He said quietly.



She was about to speak again, but realized there was nothing she could say to him. So she just nodded dumbly and allowed him to get dressed. They walked downstairs and to his car in complete silence. During the drive, Kagome kept her gaze out the window, her mind racing. She didn't think she had changed. She was still the same Kagome from the summer, wasn't she? She was still in charge of her own life. She came to this party on her own, didn't she? She was just with Koga. Because he was her boyfriend. Her long time love. Inuyasha had just been a fling over the summer.

But even that thought made her feel like crying again. Because Inuyasha hadn't been just a fling. He had been like her medicine. Even before she had met Inuyasha, she had always been unsure about her feelings concerning Koga. But when she met Inuyasha, there was never any dispute. She knew exactly how she felt about him, all the time, every time. She knew she was crazy about him, that she was in love with him. Which was why she gave her body to him in the first place. When she left to come back home at the end of the summer, she felt broken-hearted. Like she had lost a part of her.

But in those final few weeks before school, she wondered if all those feelings were really real, or if it was just the rush of summer that she got caught up in. And when she saw Koga, it made her feel that maybe it was the rush. Because she realized that she had missed her boyfriend. But then when she saw Inuyasha, her heart basically leaped. Suddenly missing her boyfriend had seemed foreign. But at the same time….

….She was just confused, that was all. Confused about everything. Confused about what was wrong, and how to make the wrong things right. And even if it was possibly to make them right.

And then she looked over at Inuyasha, who was steering with one hand, like he always did. She remember the many summer nights when the other hand was holding her own, how warm his 

hand always was, how appreciated and loved she felt just in him holding her hand. Now that hand rest idly in his lap.

They pulled up to her house, and Inuyasha shut off the car. The silence was even more evident now. But then Inuyasha spoke up: "Do you want me to walk you to your door?"

Kagome couldn't resist the smile coming to her face: "Would you?"

He only opened the door, and got out of the car. Kagome slid out of the vehicle as well and the two walked up the pathway. Inuyasha kept his arms folded, and even though he was looking ahead, he didn't seem to be looking anywhere in particular. Kagome wanted to say something to him, but didn't know what. And before she knew it, they were at her front door.

"Well, thanks for the ride Inuyasha, and for walking to my front door."

"No problem." He said with a shrug.

"Inuyasha." Inuyasha had started walking away from her, but stopped after she called his name. He turned around. "I'm sorry." She said. "For everything."

"Relax Kagome," he said with a half-smile. "It's no problem. Sleep well alright?"

She was going to sleep horribly. Somehow she managed to feel all that guilt she thought she shouldn't have felt. And yet, now the guilt felt completely reasonable, and completely for her. Somehow she had let this get out of control.

But she would start getting a handle on things soon.

* * *

**Well here's another chapter, and I'm glad I got it out. I was working on it all night last night. Anyway, here it is. I'm going try working on other ones. but I must admit, I feel like this story is going to end soon. Like maybe in about two or three more chapters.**

**Anyway, until the next chapter, hope you enjoy this one.**

**Brin.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Aouthor's Note: took me a while to write this one, but it's finally done. enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: not mine**

* * *

Kagome tried not to fiddle with the napkin in front of her, but she couldn't ignore the fact that she was nervous

Kagome tried not to fiddle with the napkin in front of her, but she couldn't ignore the fact that she was nervous. She hadn't prepared anything to say, despite the fact that she had so much on her mind.

In fact, this whole breakfast thing came to her on a whim: a moment of inspiration that she couldn't ignore. Inviting Inuyasha only seemed logical: it was he she needed to talk to. And Inuyasha was a morning person anyway, and she was already up, so she called him up to get something to eat with her, her treat. Of course, it wasn't until she added the fact that she wanted to talk to him that he decided he would go: his first response had been no.

Except maybe now, he really wasn't coming. Kagome had told him eight, and now it was eight-forty. And considering Inuyasha was a morning person, she figured it wouldn't take him that long to get himself together and get here. She was trying not to consider the possibility that she was getting stood up.

Finally, at ten minutes to nine – only seconds away from the point that Kagome decided he wasn't coming, and she should just leave – she caught a glimpse of Inuyasha stepping into the restaurant. The hostess pointed him in Kagome's direction – she had let them know before that she was waiting for him to come. When they locked eyes, she went for a small smile. One he didn't return. This was clearly not going to be easy.

Inuyasha sat down in the chair opposite of her, but said nothing. He didn't even look at her. So she ventured for the first greeting: "Good morning."

He glanced at her, and then looked away. "Morning."

Well at least he was talking to her, though she couldn't say she really enjoyed him not looking at her. "I already ordered for you." She said just as it looked like he was about to flag down a waiter. "I got you a breakfast platter."

He regarded her with narrowed eyes. "How are the eggs?"

"Scrambled with cheese."

It was small – and Kagome could have missed it – but she spotted the hint of a smile tugging at the corner of his lips. "Thanks." He said softly.

Kagome smiled brightly. "No problem."

The waiter came around to place two tall glasses of orange juice on the table, and then fifteen minutes later, he came with their breakfast. In all of this, Kagome and Inuyasha sat in silence. Kagome wasn't sure what to say to him still, or how to start whatever she wanted to say. And Inuyasha certainly wasn't about to start preaching chapter and verse: he was just here to enjoy his free breakfast. And it wasn't like he had called _her _and said he wanted to talk. Still, one of them had to say _something._

"Inuyasha?"

Inuyasha was in the middle of chewing pancakes, but he glanced up at her at the sound of his name, and swallowed: "What?"

"We need to talk."

"Well you did say something about that on the phone." He took a sip of his drink, before leaning back in his seat. He rose an curious eyebrow in her direction: "So talk to me: what is it?"

"I want to talk about last night."

She half expected him to say something, so she waited for him to speak, but after a while it was obvious that nothing was coming from the hanyou. So she continued: "I'm sorry," she stopped again, just to look away from him, then, "I'm sorry about the way things went down."

"Uh huh."

She risked a quick glance in his direction. His gaze was intense. Kagome could tell that she had his undivided attention, despite the nonchalance in his voice. She took a deep breath, and then spoke again: "I've been thinking Inuyasha, about us. About my feelings. About what's been happening for the past few months."

"And all of that took place last night?" he said with a smirk. "That must have been some heavy thinking."

"Ha. Ha." Kagome said rolling her eyes. She probably should have been happy that he was being conversational now, but how she wished it didn't sound so arrogant. "Can we be serious for a second?"

Inuyasha's smirk disappeared, immediately replaced with a frown. "Whatever."

"Now listen to me, okay. I was thinking about what happened last night. And I was thinking about the things you said–"

"I told you to forget about that."

"Yeah well, I didn't. And I just want to apologize to you, for what I did. For how I came onto you, and if I played with your feelings. I didn't mean to. And I want to apologize for my behavior on a whole. I was just confused in the beginning of the year. And I can't quite say if I stopped being confused or not. I mean, I think I've got it all figured out now, but still–"

Inuyasha held up his hand for her to stop: "You wanna start over, and try again in English?"

"Am I not coming off clear?"

"Not at all."

Kagome sighed, now she had wished she had put a little thought in what to say before coming here: "Okay, let me start over."

"Good idea."

She took a long sip of her now lukewarm orange juice, before looking up at him. Those amber eyes no longer held contempt or arrogance, but now seemed open and welcoming: the same eyes she had looked into all summer, and the same eyes she wanted to look into for as long as she could. Kagome had made her decision last night, after lying awake all night in thought, and somehow she felt this was going to be the right one.

"Inuyasha, I love you."

He snorted: "That's nice." He replied flatly.

Kagome winced at the harshness of his tone, but nodded. "Okay, I deserve that." It wasn't like Kagome had shown just how much she loved him in the last two or three months. "But it's true."

Inuyasha rolled his eyes. "What about Koga?"

"Nothing about Koga." Kagome whispered. "It's just you I love." She paused to take a final deep breath. She didn't know what was about to come out of her mouth, but whatever it was, it was going to be said with conviction and feeling. "During the summer, I felt something with you that I've never felt with any other boy. Certainly not Koga. It was magical, almost unreal. And I indulged in every part of it." She blushed as she thought about home much she had _indulged._ "I loved you, and I never wanted the summer to end."

"But then, when it did, I had to stop and think about what I had just done. I started to think that maybe, I had rushed into you and our relationship too quickly, and for all the wrong reasons."

She paused again to look up at Inuyasha. His face was open once more. "Koga and I had hit a rough patch just before the summer started, and it was probably one of the roughest. Up to that point, he and I had never slept together, and apparently, it was becoming a problem for him. And we argued about it all the time. Finally I came to the conclusion that maybe I was being childish about it all, and that I loved Koga and Koga loved me. So I should just do it to get it over with."

There was another snort from Inuyasha. "How romantic." His voice was sarcastic.

She shrugged weakly. "Yeah I know. But that's how I felt." She took a deep breath. This was something she hadn't told anyone. Not even Sango knew the full extent of the story. This full extent. "So I wanted to surprise him. I bought something lacy, and went over to his house without telling him I was coming. His younger sister let me in. When I asked where Koga was, she said that he was upstairs in his room with a friend, and that he had told her to stay in the basement and not bother him till that friend is gone. I didn't think much of it: I just thought that maybe he was up there with some anybody, and didn't want to be bothered by his little sister. I wish now I had thought more."

She took another deep breath, and now Kagome felt tears stinging the corners of her eyes. She wiped them away before they could fall, which caught Inuyasha's attention. "Kagome, you don't have to tell me."

It was the first time he had spoken without sounded arrogant or sarcastic. "I appreciate your concern." She said at an attempt at a joke. "But I want to tell you." She sighed, then spoke again: "I went upstairs, but I didn't need to go much further to hear the noises. They seemed soft at first, but they grow at different intervals. As I walked towards Koga's bedroom, they got louder and louder. I could hear him, and I could hear a girl."

Tears were coming again, but this time she couldn't reach for them. "It took only a second for it to sink in, and then I knew. I knew he was in there with another woman, and that he was…" She couldn't formulate the words. "That he was…sleeping with her. He just couldn't – I don't know – wait for me. He told me that he loved me and that he was waiting, but standing on the other side of that door, I felt betrayed. This could have been going on for a while. I could have all this time thought that my boyfriend cared about me, when really he was fucking with some other bitch."

Suddenly she felt Inuyasha's hand cover hers. "You deserve better than that Kagome. You should know that."

"You don't even know the worst part yet. The girl? It was Kikyo. Kikyo fucking Hitomi. After initial shock and sorrow, I got angry, and opened the door. And there he was, lying on top of her, fixed between her legs, under the covers. And when she saw me, she screamed. And then he saw me, and tried to cover up and tell me not to get mad and all kinds of fucking garbage. But all could think was, why Kikyo? Why was this girl so hell bent on destroying my life? Why ever time I have a boyfriend, did she have to go after him? Why would Koga chose her, knowing how I feel about her? I just felt so incredibly hurt, and angry, and upset, that I just glared and left."

"The next time I saw Koga after that moment was shortly before I left for California. He fed me some bullshit lines about how it was all a mistake, and that he doesn't genuinely feel anything for Kikyo, and that the only reason he did it was because I wasn't giving it up."

"Fucking bastard." Inuyasha growled after that.

"Yeah well, at the time, I ate it all up: like an idiot. I told him it was fine, even though it clearly wasn't, and then I just left for Cali. Then I met you, and you were like my medicine. It was like; you were what boys and boyfriends should be like. And well…you know how our summer went. But when I got home, I wondered if the reason I was so drawn to you in the first place was just because I wanted top get back at Koga. I wondered if it was possibly that I didn't love you as much as I thought I did, and that I was just angry at Koga and wanted my own fun. I wondered if you were just my fun."

Kagome took a moment to catch her breath after all of that. Surprisingly, it felt good to get that all out. Every time she thought of that story, she felt ashamed of the fact that she forgave Koga so easily, or that it was possible she messed around with Inuyasha just to be evil. But instead, she just felt drained: the good kind.

"So now what?" Inuyasha asked.

"Well, I thought about it, and I decided, I didn't just hook up with you to be angry. I couldn't have. I felt something with you: something between us. Something genuine. Something I once thought I felt with Koga, but realized I never felt with him. He was trying to be the boss of me, and you were trying to be my friend. He was always hurting me, and you were just constantly caring for me. But when I saw you at my school, I just got afraid of my feelings. I was so used to Koga, and you were supposed to be a fling, that I just didn't know what to do. But I know what I want to do now."

She looked up at him, and didn't waver once as she said this finally part: "I want to be with you. For as long as you let me. I need to have you in my life Inuyasha, but not as my friend. Not even as my boyfriend. I need you, as the love of my life. As my superhero. As my better half."

Inuyasha didn't say anything at first. Kagome knew that maybe it was a lot for him to take at one time. She could even understand if he didn't trust her feelings – considering she had been so flip flop so far – but she prayed that he would believe her, and understand where she was coming from. She prayed he'd give her another chance.

However, the frown appearing on his face didn't seem like a good sign. "I don't know what you want me to do Kagome. I have strong feelings for you, and I'm not interested in getting them played with some more. And you hurt me a lot this year. And you're clearly an idiot for choosing your cheating scum of a boyfriend over me." He sighed. "I don't know if I can trust you anymore.

She nodded, and her head dropped. She felt like she might start crying again. She had lost the only boy that mattered. "Okay, Inuyasha. I understand." She said quietly.

But then she felt his hand under her chin, lifting her head up so she could look at him. The frown was gone, replaced with a smile. "I'm glad you do." He said.

Anything else Kagome could have said died in her throat when Inuyasha's lips pressed against hers. After that moment, all that mattered was Inuyasha. And Kagome figured that she liked it that way.

* * *

**there you go. srry it took so long, bt it was kinda hard to get all this stuff together. bt i hope you liked it anyway. review if you wish.**

**Brin.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Sorry if this chapter took so long, but its finally done! and this story is finally done! yay! i hope you all enjoy it :)**

**Disclaimer: Inuyasha isnt mine.**

* * *

Kagome woke up on Monday morning, feeling blissfully happy

Kagome woke up on Monday morning, feeling blissfully happy. She got out of her bed, turned on her iPod radio and set the playlist to her favorites. Once the music filled her room, she started getting ready: sauntering towards her connecting bathroom to freshen up.

Once she had showered, brushed her teeth, and done all the regular bathroom activities, she swayed the beat back into her room and towards her closet, to pick out her clothes. She chose a red strapless top and a pair of dark blue denim Bermuda shorts. She slipped on the clothes after rubbing moisturizer into her skin. Then, just to feel like a superstar, she chose a pair of red pumps with stiletto heels. She ran her comb through her hair just to get the bed ruffles out, but left it free. Still she pulled a hair clip onto her wrist just in case it got hot. She kept her face basically make-up free, opting for a red lip-stain instead of lip-stick.

Once she felt satisfied with her appearance, she grabbed her iPod and earphones, plugging in the earphones so she could keep listening to the music. When she appeared in the kitchen, her mother took a long look at her.

After a moment, she smiled: "Well, don't you look happy Kagome."

"I feel happy, Mom." Kagome replied as she returned the smile.

"Do you have time for breakfast?"

Normally Kagome would pass on breakfast, opting for the quicker version which would be to grab an apple, but today she felt on top on things. "I think I have time to sit down and enjoy some pancakes."

Her mother's smile brightened. "Good, because I made blueberry."

"Yeah, blueberry!" Sota's cry could be heard as he came rushing down the stairs to join the two women in the kitchen.

As Kagome ate, she felt herself becoming more relaxed. Nothing was better than good, mother-made pancakes.

Except maybe, finally getting some control on your life. Which Kagome could also say, she had done.

"So why all this joy honey?" Her mother asked after a moment. "I haven't seen you this happy in a while."

"You're kidding, right, Mom?"

"Wrong sweetheart." Her mother sat down next to her. "I didn't want to say anything to you, because I figured, if anything was bothering you, you'd talk to me. But for a while Kagome, you had seen so…unlike you. A little down, or repressed. And I was concerned. I mean, it wasn't to the point that I thought we needed to ring the alarms or anything, but you just weren't my bright and sparkling Kagome."

Kagome smiled to herself. Her mother was so perceptive sometimes, even if Kagome wasn't telling her a thing. "I had been feeling a little off lately Mom. I think it was just because, I didn't know what I wanted. But I know now, and it's making things better."

"Ah, the trials and tribulations of being a teenager and not knowing what they want." Her mother said in a voice with expiration. Still Kagome heard the joking undertone in her voice, which just made her smile at her mother. "Well I'm glad things worked out for you sweetheart."

"Yeah, me too Mom."

After breakfast, Kagome drove to school leisurely, not because she wasn't in a rush, but more because she wanted to appreciate the day more. Today was the beginning of her taking control, and she was excited for the whole thing.

Her morning started off easy. She got into school only a few minutes before homeroom, so she didn't see anyone in the hallway. In her first set of classes, she took a seat next to Inuyasha, who was looking just as bright and happy as she felt inside. And as they walked from class to class, Kagome was happy to have her hand laced with his. Of course, as they walked, a whole lot of eyebrows were raised, and whispers were running all over. But Kagome could care less: eyebrows and whispers didn't control what she was going to do.

By lunch time, she finally saw Koga. She was sitting out in the courtyard where she and her friends at lunch. Miroku was trying to tell everyone a dirty joke, while Sango just continuingly shook her head in a hopeless way. They were the only two who didn't comment about the fact that Inuyasha had his arm around Kagome's shoulder and that Kagome was snuggled close to his body. Sango had fallen victim to an eyebrow raise, but when Kagome gave her a knowing smile, Sango smiled back. They would talk later of course, but right now, all that mattered was enjoying lunch and each other's company.

It was in the middle of all that enjoyment that Kagome spotted Koga coming towards them. There was an angry fire in his blue eyes that Kagome could see even in the distance. Kagome figured that by now he had heard enough from the school's gossip community that there was something suspicious concerning her and Inuyasha. And the way he was coming over with all that intensity, she knew he was about to get these suspicions resolved.

Well, some things were about to be resolved, that's for sure.

"Just what the fuck is going on here!" he bellowed, loud enough for the people in the courtyard to look around.

Miroku gave an easy grin: "Well I was just trying to tell these guys the one about the girl and the magic dildo–"

"I'm not here for that bullshit!" he roared.

Miroku rolled his eyes. "Jeez, everyone is a critic."

"No one just doesn't want to hear that Miroku." Sango said.

"But it's funny!" he protested.

Koga was clearly letting his rage fluster him, so Kagome finally spoke. "What is it Koga?"

"What is it? Are you **fucking **me? What the fuck is going on here? I hear all over campus that you and this mutt are holding hands and some other kind of shit, and now I come over here to see you cuddling with the bastard!"

"You need to calm the fuck down." Inuyasha said darkly.

"What you need to do is get up off my woman and get your own fucking bitch."

"Your woman?" Kagome said incredulously. "These aren't the caveman days Koga. I have a name."

"Shut up Kagome." He snapped. "I'll deal with you later."

Inuyasha's body tightened. "You don't talk to Kagome like that."

"More importantly, you won't be dealing with me later." Kagome said. She loosened herself from Inuyasha grasp and stood up. "You won't be dealing with me at all. Not anymore."

"Who are you talking to like that?" Koga demanded of her.

"You Koga!" she said in a raised voice. "I am talking to **you** like that. As of this point I want nothing to do with you anymore."

Koga looked taken aback. "Hang on, are you breaking up with me?"

"Yes." Kagome said firmly, which resulted in a wave of gasps from the now very attentive crowd in the courtyard. "I'm breaking up with you."

First Koga frowned, then he looked angry again. "You're breaking up with me for this half-human mutt!"

Inuyasha growled, but Kagome spoke up before he could: "No I'm breaking up with you for me."

Koga frowned again. "That doesn't make any sense Kagome."

"It makes perfect sense Koga." She walked over to him, until they were facing each other head on. "In the beginning Koga, you were my dream, and I thought you were the most perfect boy in the world. But somewhere along the lines, things changed, and I didn't think you were so perfect anymore. You were starting to control me, telling what to wear, where to go, who to talk to. You always jealous, even of Miroku, which is ridiculous if you think about it."

"Hey!" Miroku said. "I take offense to that!"

"She doesn't mean it offensively," Sango said soothingly.

"You didn't want me to talk to any boys or anything, as if I was going to go out and cheat if I did. But at the same time, it was okay for you to talk to all the women you wanted to, to collect all the new numbers you needed, and for you to hang out with other girls. And if I got upset, I was just being unnecessarily jealous or stupid. But then I found out that I wasn't being stupid, was I Koga?"

Koga didn't say anything right away, his gaze flattering as he looked away. For a minute, Kagome wondered if she was taking things to far. But even as she thought it, she realized she wasn't taking it far enough. She hadn't even begin to hurt him they way he had hurt her. She could never hurt him the way he hurt her.

She shook her head. "You don't even understand Koga, how much you had hurt me. When I saw…what I saw, it broke me into pieces. You told me I was the one for you, and there was never any other girl. And that I was being unnecessarily jealous. But that wasn't true at all. There was another girl: who knows how many."

"And the worst part of it all is that I didn't even break up with you **then.** You wanted a second chance and I gave it to you. But there was no change, no betterment. It was just the same shit from before. And I'm just tired of all of it Koga. I'm tired of you."

"I see how you're just ignoring the part of the story where you cheated on me with that fucking mutt dog behind you." Koga said in an angry hiss.

"Just like I haven't said a word about the part where you fucked dirty slut that you knew I couldn't stand." She replied in a low voice as well.

Koga looked away, his face actually looking a bit pained. "I can't lose you Kagome. I can't lose you to this mutt."

"You've already lost me." Kagome said. "Not to Inuyasha, not to anyone. You lost me when you made me be someone I wasn't. When you took who I was and tried to make it into someone you wanted. And I went along with that. But I won't anymore. I want to be my own person. Not you're Kagome 2.0, but Kagome the original person. And part of being that person means getting rid of you."

Finally, Kagome just shrugged. "It's over Koga, that's just it."

Kagome might have seen some hurt in that final glare of his, but Kagome was surprised to find herself unaffected. She wanted to make a clean break, and it was being made. "Fine." Koga bellowed. "Fine! I don't need you. I can have anyone I want. You know that well enough don't you."

Kagome could tell he said that to hurt her, but she just shrugged again. "I guess so."

Now Koga looked angry enough to spit, but he just spun around and stomped away from her just as angry as he had approached. For a minute, Kagome just watched him. He had made a pit stop and Kikyo, but the conversation didn't seem to be going well. Kagome only shook her head: Kikyo of course wouldn't want Koga after her very public break up with him. The allure was Kagome's current boyfriends, not exes.

Kagome watched as Koga walked away from her angrily as well and stormed into the school. Then she went back around to her current boyfriend and climbed into his lap. Inuyasha was smiling up at her, a proud smile on his face. In fact, the whole table was smiling at her as if she had just won an award.

"How are you feeling Jelly?" Sango asked.

Kagome smiled brightly. "Good, really good."

"You should feel amazing." Inuyasha said. He put his arms around her and squeezed her affectionately. "I'm so proud of you." He whispered in her ear.

"Well this is cute."

The new voice turned out to be Kikyo's, as she stood at the head of the table, smiling at Kagome and Inuyasha specifically. But something about the smile was off. "So I guess it's over between you and Koga huh." She continued.

Kagome nodded: "It's over."

Kikyo nodded. "Well good for you Kagome. He's a jerk anyway, and you deserve better."

Surprisingly, Kikyo sounded genuine about that statement. And when the two girls met eyes, Kagome swore she felt a hint of remorse from Kikyo, as if she was trying to mentally apologize to her. Kagome nodded, accepting the attempt. Now Kikyo smiled again, for real. "I have something better now." Kagome said, reaching for Inuyasha's hand and lacing her fingers with his.

Kikyo glanced down at their hands, then looked up. "That's great. I'm happy for you. See you around."

She walked away with a flip of her hair. For once, Kagome felt that maybe this was one boyfriend she wouldn't have to worry about losing to Kikyo. Not that that made Kagome like the girl any more, but it was a nice thought to consider.

Not that Kagome was going to give Inuyasha up – to anyone – without a fight.

She turned to face him, a bright smile on her face. "I love you."

He returned the gesture. "I love you too."

She kissed him softly, and it felt right.

Finally, things were starting to feel right.

* * *

**Hope you all enjoyed the final chapter, and this story. Sorry that it took so long ot finish, but I tried my best. And now i completed it: yay! :)**

**until my next fic, peace everybody. stay healthy, and keep safe.**

**Brin.**


End file.
